After nearly two months recovering in the intensive care unit and after suffering multiple amputations, Aimee Copeland is set to be released from the hospital today.
Copeland, 24, was hospitalized after contracting necrotizing fasciitis- also known as flesh-eating bacteria- after she cut her left calf, but her family explained that she is looking forward to leaving the hospital.
"She's real excited," her father, Andy, said during an interview on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "She's been seeing those four walls inside that hospital for a long time."
Local media reported that Copeland will enter a rehabilitation facility following her release before she will be able to return to her home after surgeons amputated most of her hands, part of her abdomen, one of her legs and her remaining foot in order to prevent the bacteria from spreading. Copeland has also undergone numerous skin grafts.
"This next step is her opportunity to go (to) the next phase and learn something, be able to rehabilitate and basically relearn her life skills," her father told WXIA.
He added: "She needs to be able to develop the autonomy to be able to transfer from her bed to a wheelchair to the shower to the bathroom or anywhere else in the house. And she can do it."
Copeland's ordeal began on May 1 after she was kayaking down a creek in Carrolton with friends when they decided to stop and play with a homemade zip line. While she was on the device the line snapped and as a result suffered a large wound on her left calf.
Copeland, who is a graduate student at the University of West Georgia, was taken to Tanner Medical Center, where doctors closed the wound with 22 staples.
But all was not right with her recovery and a few days after she went back to the hospital complaining of pain in her leg. Doctors realized that she was suffering from necrotizing fasciitis and rushed her into surgery.
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