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Third case of flesh-eating disease diagnosed in Ga.

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — There is now a third case of the flesh-eating bacteria in Georgia.

Robert Vaughn, 32, of Cartersville said he is not sure how he got the infection, but on May 3, the landscape business owner had just finished a project, and when he got back to the office.

"Just godawful pain in my groin area. It's hard to walk, hard to sit down, it just hurt, hurt all in my back," Vaughn said.

His business partner, Justin Troup, was with him and told Channel 2 Action News, Vaughn just got violently ill.

"He began to get sick, throwing up for about three minutes and had to go lay down. The next thing I know he's in the hospital, and he's been there ever since," Troup said.

That was May 4.

Vaughn said doctors told him he has a form of the flesh-eating bacteria, but he's not sure where he got it from.

"I was weed-eating something and I may have gotten hit by something. That's the only thing I can think that happened," Vaughn said.

At one point Vaughn was right next to Aimee Copeland in the same hospital, but his health improved and they moved him off intensive care.

That was after he said doctors removed 2½ pounds of dead tissue from his leg.

He is expected to make a full recovery but it still remains a mystery how he contracted the disease.

Dr. Robin Dretler is an infectious disease specialist and said it is extremely rare for someone to contract a flesh-eating bacteria unless there is a deep cut to the body where bacteria can get past the protective layer of the skin.
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