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Thursday, Aug 23, 2012 5:00 PM UTC

Woman who fought flesh-eating illness goes home

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Topics: From the Wires,

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A 24-year-old Georgia woman who survived a rare, flesh-eating disease is back home after more than three months in the hospital and a rehabilitation clinic.

Aimee Copeland’s father says she was “laughing it up” when she returned Wednesday to the family’s home in Snellville outside Atlanta. Andy Copeland says the family had dinner at a steakhouse and showed his daughter her new wheelchair-accessible room and living quarters, which added nearly 2,000 square feet to their home.

Aimee Copeland contracted the rare infection in May after falling from a zip line and gashing her leg. Doctors had to amputate both her hands, her left leg and her right foot because of the rare infection called necrotizing fasciitis.

She spent the last two months at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation clinic in Atlanta, learning to move, eat and bathe without prosthetics.

More Russ Bynum.

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