A long-serving and admired pastor has been killed by a flesh-eating bacteria infection that has already left five others seriously ill.
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Linda Snyder, of Sacramento, who was a preacher at city’s United Methodist Church, died this morning following a six-month battle with the deadly germ called necrotizing-fasciitis.
She was the sixth person to have developed a flesh-eating infection over the past two months, according to Fox40.
At the beginning of the month of June, South Carolina grandmother Louise Thompson underwent emergency surgery to remove infected flesh from her leg. She was also in a coma, for five days, during the time period.
Aimee Copeland, a student from Georgia College had to have her leg, her foot and both hands amputated last month. She is still in intensive care after bacteria got into a cut she developed following a fall.
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Snyder contracted the deadly disease on January 6 after bacteria got into a wound. The wound possibly being an abscess which she had developed in December, the month prior.
Doctors attempted to contain the spread of the infectious bacteria, but her daughter Karen said that her mother had developed several difficulties and medical staff were unable to remedy the situation.
The bacterial infection is called flesh-eating because of its aggressive nature. In this case, meaning that, skin rapidly disappears when the germ takes hold.
Fellow victim Copeland is still in intensive care. But, thankfully on Tuesday doctors downgraded the 24-year-old’s condition from critical to serious. This indicates that she continues to improve after her life was nearly taken by the unimaginable infection.
Lana Kuykendall, a new mother was infected with the bacteria days after she gave birth to twins at an Atlanta hospital. Her condition has improved to fair after spending weeks in intensive care.
Andy, Copeland’s father said about his daughter, “She’s going to have to learn to use prosthetic limbs.”
He goes on, ‘But the critical-care phase, I believe, has come to an end.’
He also notes that one doctor who had expected her to spend months in intensive care was ‘blown away by her rate of progress.’
Miss Copeland was infected with the insidious bacteria after she fell from a homemade zip-line into the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton and cut her thigh on rocks.
Thompson went to a Simpsonville doctor reporting a pain in her left leg felt ‘like pins sticking in my skin’ but no visible signs of infection.
She ended up in hospital undergoing surgery to remove ‘a place the size of a “regulation football,” it was reported.
Mrs. Thompson is still recovering at the Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital in Greenville. And she stood up for the first time in months, on Friday.
“I won’t ever ignore something that’s sore anymore, I just really thought that I wasn’t going to live.”
Bobby Vaughn, 33, the third victim has been upgraded to good condition after doctors removed two pounds of flesh from his groin.
He became infected after he cut his thigh cutting weeds in Cartersville.
Paul Bales of Lake Sinclair became victim number four after he cut his leg installing a new dock at the lake on May 1.
The cut was very small. It wasn’t nearly enough to stop the grandfather from playing golf the next day.
However; within four days the cut had swelled and he was forced to have his leg amputated.
Dr. Mike Green, of Macon, says despite the bizarre outbreak of the disease, people shouldn’t over-react and become paranoid about becoming infected.
Apparently getting diagnosed is still very rare.
We pray for Snyder and Snyder’s family and we hope the other five victims make full recoveries.
And you thought the “zombie apocalypse” stories might be dwindling out? There’s a chance that America is in for chapter two, as flesh-eating viruses will follow the bath salts phenomenon.
