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| Aimee Copeland, right, is seen on July 2, 2012, leaving the Augusta, Ga., hospital where she spent 49 days recovering from a flesh-eating bacterial infection and the loss of her left leg, right foot and hands. (Obtained by ABC News) |
Aimee Copeland, the young woman who lost her hands and feet to a flesh eating disease, is relaxing in her own home for the first time in months and relishing a waterfall that has been installed in her home just for her.
Copeland, 24, returned home Wednesday after an emotional "graduation" ceremony at Shepherd Center in Atlanta where she had been undergoing grueling rehabilitation for the last 51 days.
"When we got back home, Aimee rolled around in her room and she wasreally laughing it up," her father Andy Copeland told the Associated Press.
The home she returned to in Snellville, Ga., had been renovated to accommodate her and her wheelchair, and includes an elevator and a waterfall.
Copeland told her father, Andy Copeland, that she liked the waterfall best.
"I already knew the answer," her father said, recalling how Copeland hesitated to chose a favorite renovation and then smiled before pointing out the stream in the backyard. Andy Copeland said waterfall "captures the beauty of nature that Aimee loves so much."
Copeland also had an emotional sendoff from the Shepherd Center.
"She was a delightful and very strong young lady, and she worked very hard while she was here," said Larry Bowie, a spokesman for the center, told ABCNews.com. "We wish her all the best, and we know she's going to go on to do very great things."
Bowie said Copeland made a lot of friends at the Shepherd Center. He said patients always get graduation ceremonies before they are discharged, and called Copeland's "wonderful" and "very emotional" for everyone.
"She's looking forward to the next chapter," he said.
Copeland cut open her leg falling from a zip line near the Tallapoosa River nearly four months ago, allowing a deadly bacterium to enter her body. After being in and out of the emergency room with a painful wound that wouldn't heal, doctors realized she had necrotizing fasciitis and amputated her leg from the hip.
Copeland's recovery was touch and go. When she lost her pulse, doctors had to resuscitate her with CPR. Fearing the bacteria would spread to her blood, doctors amputated Copeland's hands and her remaining foot.
She was released from the hospital in early July, and went to the Shepherd Center. Copeland's father, Andy, blogged about the grueling workout routine designed to help her maneuver in and out of her wheelchair.
"During each of her physical therapy sessions, Aimee does two hundred crunches in seven minutes. Every ten crunches, Aimee is required to say a complete sentence with each repetition," Andy wrote on the blog last month. "How many of you can do two hundred crunches in seven minutes?"
Proud of his daughter, he said in another post that it was like she was training for the Olympics.
When Copeland returned to her Snellville home last night, it was renovated to include a 2,000-square-foot wing just for her. Pulte Homes and its 50 trade partners build the space, which includes a workout room and an elevator. The project cost about $200,000 to complete and took 25 days.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Copeland will make her first public appearance in Snellville on Sept. 14.
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