New Cases of Flesh-Eating Bacteria Hit the Southeast

There are now three reported cases of patients with a flesh-eating bacterial infection causing necrotising fasciitis in the southeastern United States. One is a student, another a mother of newborn twins, and the third a landscaper.

Doctors have said the cases are not related to each other.

(Related: Flesh-eating germ rare, especially for health)

The first was Georgia graduate student Aimee Copeland, who lost both feet and hands. The 24-year-old, miraculously is now breathing on her own and in even such a serious state of physical change, her father reports she is "cracking jokes, speaking frankly, displaying her usual early morning grumpiness." Copeland became infected with the bacteria after she fell while zip-lining and cut her leg.

Next was a mother from South Carolina, whose case though serious, is less severe than Copeland's and caused by a different bacterium. Lana Kuykendall, 36, gave birth to healthy twins at an Atlanta hospital last week. When the new family of four returned to their home in Piedmont, the mother - who is also a paramedic - noticed a pain and rash on her left leg.

As the spot began to spread, Kuykendall went to a local hospital, where she has since undergone several surgeries but was improving Thursday.

"She's stable," Darren Kuykendall, the woman's husband, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Watch this Fox News report on Kuykendall's condition:

The third reported case, according to Atlanta's 11 Alive News, is 33-year-old Bobby Vaughn. Vaughn of Cartersville, Ga., is just down the hall from Copeland in the hospital. So far, 11 Alive reports, Vaughn has had five surgeries that have removed two pounds of infected flesh, and he still has come reconstructive work ahead of him.

Compared to the two other women, Vaughn said it makes his condition seem much better. He said he is grateful he and the two women are alive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.