For outdoors enthusiast Aimee Copeland, 24, falling off a friend's zip line along the Little Tallapoosa River May 1 and gashing her leg so badly it required 22 surgical staples seemed at first no big deal. But about a week and a half later, fighting for her life after contracting necrotizing fasciitis, an extremely rare and aggressive flesh-eating bacteria (see box), she faced multiple amputations. Surgeons had already taken her left leg at the hip, and now her family had to break the news that she would also lose both hands and her right foot. Copeland showed a steely understanding of just what was at stake. "Let's do this," she mouthed to parents Donna and Andy. "Her resilience," Andy says, "has been stunning."
Still in critical condition, the University of West Georgia grad student is back to cracking jokes with her parents and sister Paige, 25. A passionate hiker, she's also already talking about getting fitted for prostheses. "We're not out of the woods yet," Andy says. "But she's alive! It's a miracle."
