3rd Victim Battles Flesh-Eating Bacteria

Doctors say there's no link to Aimee Copeland case
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 21, 2012 1:08 PM CDT
3rd Victim Battles Flesh-Eating Bacteria
This undated photo provided by the family shows Aimee Copeland.   (AP Photo/Copeland Family)

Doctors are still insisting there's no connection, but a third person in the Southeast is now fighting flesh-eating bacteria. "I just started feeling very sick," Bobby Vaughn, 33, tells WXIA Atlanta. "I was throwing up and had a backache. I just thought it was a little infection." But the Georgia landscaper soon started to swell, particularly in his groin, and went to the hospital. He has gone through five surgeries and had about two pounds of damaged tissue removed; he says doctors think the bacteria is no longer spreading, but he still has skin grafts and reconstructive surgeries in his future. Twenty-four-year-old Aimee Copeland and new mom Lana Kuykendall are also fighting the rare ailment; Copeland is just down the hall in the hospital from Vaughn. (More Lana Kuykendall stories.)

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