Woman refuses Pain Medication for Flesh-eating disease

Aimee Copeland, a woman from Georgia, has been fighting a disease that eats her flesh since May 1. The college student despises morphine and has refused to take any pain medication when receiving certain procedures, because of personal convictions.

Her father said in an update online about her health that his daughter studied techniques in holistic pain management  and that has made her feel like a traitor to her own convictions when she takes medications to manage the pain.

Her father also said that morphine has made his daughter confused, groggy and she has experienced hallucinatory side effects. Copeland developed necrotizing fasciitis in early May when she cut her leg after falling from a zip line over a river in Georgia. Since that time, she has had her left leg, right foot and both hands amputated.

She had her condition ungraded to serious from critical last Tuesday. Her father, Andy, has been maintaining a blog that updates his daughter’s condition. On Friday, she experienced a successful skin graft for the first time. Her father said the size of his daughter’s wound is enormous.

The bacteria that has attacked the young woman, releases a toxin that destroys skin, skin tissue and muscle. It got its name from the skin tissue that is directly below the top layer of the skin known as fascia.

Copeland no longer has to breathe on a ventilator nor does she need to have dialysis and she finally can eat on her own said her dad.