Landscaper becomes third flesh-eating bacteria victim
Georgia man fights infection after getting injured on job
A third case of flesh-eating bacteria has emerged with ties to Georgia, myFOXatlanta reported.
A landscaper from Cartersville is in critical condition at Doctors Hospital in Augusta battling the potentially deadly disease. That's the same place University of West Georgia graduate student Aimee Copeland is being treated.
A Piedmont, S.C. mom is also fighting the infection days after giving birth in Atlanta at Emory University Hospital Midtown.
The new flesh-eating bacteria case involves Bobby Vaughn. The Cartersville landscaper was injured at work when he fell from a tree two weeks ago and suffered a cut to his side.
"He got a cut on his side and took him to the hospital. My son said he was throwing up…They treated him, he chose to leave. He got up the next morning it had spread," said Amanda Nicholson, Vaughn's ex-wife.
Nicholson said that Vaughn spent about a week at Cartersville Medical Center. She says the infection quickly spread from his abdomen to his upper back. He was eventually transferred to Doctor's Hospital in Augusta.
"It was kind of scary at first because, for some reason it was like every two days, when they would go to check, it was spreading, still. And so finally that was when they sent him to Augusta," said Nicholson.
According to Nicholson, Vaughn has undergone five surgeries as doctors remove nearly two pounds of infected tissue.