Paige Copeland, center, wipes her eyes as her parents Donna and Andy Copeland speak about their daughter Aimee, Thursday, May 10, 2012, who remains in critical condition at Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., after contracting a devastating bacterial infection known as necrotizing fasciitis last week. Doctors say the young woman battling the flesh-decaying bacteria she contracted after a zip line accident will lose her hands and remaining foot to the infection. But Aimee Copeland’s father says the 24-year-old college student is improving. (AP Photo/The Augusta Chronicle, Emily Rose Bennett)By Fran Jeffries
May 23–A Cartersville man had his sixth surgery Tuesday after contracting the same flesh-decaying bacterial infection as Aimee Copeland.
Bobby Vaughn, 33, is the third person whose infection has come to light in recent weeks in the region.
Vaughn, the owner of a landscaping company, had skin grafts Tuesday to repair areas where his flesh was cut away after he fell ill in early May after getting a small cut on his leg.
He is being treated for necrotizing fasciitis at the same Augusta hospital as Copeland, who nearly died from the infection she contracted after a zip-line injury in Carrollton on May 1. She is improving but remains in critical condition after multiple amputations.