A long line of people -- friends and strangers -- turned out to give blood Tuesday on the University of West Georgia campus in Carrollton -- one of a series of blood drives and concert fundraisers to raise money to help Aimee Copeland.
The 24-year-old Snellville native remains in critical condition as she battles a rare infection in an Augusta hospital. Her left leg has been amputated at the hip. Surgeons say she’s likely to lose her fingers and remaining foot.
Shirley Murphy of Cobb County was one of the first in line to give blood. "I just felt like I could do something to help and the least I could do is donate a pint of blood," she told Channel 2 Action News.
Copeland, a University of West Georgia graduate pyschology student, contracted the bacteria – Aeromonas hydrophila – May 1 as she and friends zip-lined along the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton.
When the homemade zip line broke, she fell six feet or so to the water and the rocks below, tearing open her calf on a stone. The bacteria entered through Copeland's wound, doctors said.
Her father told the Associated Press Tuesday that his daughter is still breathing on a respirator but is improving more rapidly than expected.
The blood drive was being held until 7 p.m. Tuesday in the gymnasium on the University of West Georgia campus. Sponsors include the UWG Pyschology Department and the Shepeard Community Blood Center of Augusta, which supplies to the Joseph M. Still burn center where Copeland is a patient.
Ashley Parker, told Channel 2 that she and her dad both attended the college. "I thought it was just the right thing to do," she said.
It's just one of those easy things to do to support somebody, Leslie Baskette told Channel 2, "and Aimee's story touched me."
Meanwhile, Gary Duke, owner of the Sunnyside Cafe in Carrolton where Copeland worked, is making plans for fundraisers:
-- The first will be a concert scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday in the Moonshadow Music Hall at the Sunnyside Cafe, 405 Rome St., Carrollton. The concert theme will be folk and bluegrass-gospel and it will feature Americana Express, a group that performs songs from the Duke Baggett Band CD, “Georgia Tracks,” Duke said.
Beth and Jesse Duke, two singer-songwriters and co-owners of Sunnyside Cafe, will perform acoustic folk music. Gospel-bluegrass group Not By Chance will round out the evening, Duke said.
-- A May 22 concert at Moonshadow Music Hall will feature Cory Durkin, a singer-songwriter who has written a song about Copeland and performed it on YouTube. Durkin is traveling to Georgia from Nashville to sing for Copeland and her family in Augusta before coming to Carrollton to do the benefit at Moonshadow, Duke said.
-- Sunnyside is also planning a fitness exhibition and an art auction for the Aimee Fund on May 22, Duke said. That fund has been set up at United Community Bank, 119 Maple Street in Carrollton. Or, people can go to the online site and use PayPal to donate.
-- Duke said he is also planning a rock and roll benefit concert on May 26, Memorial Day weekend, but he has not finalized details.
The UWG Psychology Department is maintaining a website to provide updated information on Copeland's condition from her parents. Her father, Andy Copeland, had been posting daily updates, but now says he will post them less often.
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