The City of Snellville will present Aimee Copeland's family with a check for $16,500 on Monday night — donations the city raised during a fund raiser for the young woman now recovering from a deadly flesh-decaying infection.
After nearly dying from the infection, and suffering amputations of her hands and feet, the Snellville resident was released from an Augusta hospital last Monday and began the next phase of her recovery at a rehabilitation center in Georgia. Her father, Andy Copeland, said in a recent blog post, that Aimee had fed herself for the first time. "She can also now brush her own teeth. How's that for only 4 full days of rehab? Yeah, I'm beaming from ear-to-ear right now," he wrote.
Organizers of the Snellville event said they hope the money will assist the University of West Georgia graduate student in the next phase of her recovery, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Copeland, 24, is spending the next six to eight weeks in rehab to continue her recovery from the bacteria she contracted from a wound she suffered after falling from a homemade zip line on May 1. Eight weeks ago, Copeland was clinging to life. Each passing day brought grimmer news: surgeons had to cut off her left leg at the hip; they amputated her right foot and both hands. Each surgery weakened Copeland.
Yet she fought back. Eventually, she began regaining strength. By mid-June her condition was upgraded from critical to serious, and two weeks ago, doctors changed her status to good. Last Monday, she left Doctor's Hospital in Augusta and headed to an undisclosed rehabilitation center in Georgia.
In his recent update, Andy Copeland offers thanks to the many people who have donated to Aimee Copeland's cause. He notes that the financial support means a lot to the family because prosthetics for Copeland will be expensive.
"We have come to realize that $150,000 for prosthetics may have been a conservative estimate," Andy Copeland wrote.. "Aimee will require a set of body-powered limbs and a set of myo-electric limbs. She will also require ongoing fittings for the ever-changing condition of her amputated limbs, which is required for continued comfort."
Copeland wrote that he has "pleaded with our insurance company to extend the coverage of prosthetics beyond the stingy annual sum of $50,000 that is allowed under our medical plan. Surely they realize that there are not a plethora of quad-amputees in existence and that Aimee's extraordinary condition requires extraordinary care and coverage."
