News of a Georgia graduate student’s horrific battle with a flesh-eating bacteria she is believed to have picked up from the Little Tallapoosa River has drawn attention to microbial hazards in the water. But doctors say that while the recent case is severe, it is also unusual.
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On May 1, 24-year-old Aimee Copeland fell from a homemade zipline and gashed her calf on rocks in the river. The wound got infected and bacteria set in causing a condition known as necrotizing fasciitis. Doctors were forced to amputate Copeland’s left leg, right foot and both hands to save her life.
While such bacteria doesn’t often have such devastating effects, paddlers and anyone else in the water should pay attention to any scrapes or cuts, according to Dr. Michael Callahan in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Wounds contaminated by seemingly clean river water are not uncommon,” says Callahan, who is a former member of the famous Yosemite Search and Rescue Team and a lecturer at last year’s RiverRocks Medical Conference in Chattanooga.