Celebrating 75: How Aimee Copeland turned tragedy into a new life mission to help others

ATLANTA — As we continue to celebrate our 75th anniversary here at WSB-TV, we are taking a look at the stories, events, and people who have made a mark here in the Atlanta metro.

Eleven years ago this month, grad student Aimee Copeland fell from a zipline in Georgia and then developed a flesh-eating bacteria.

That changed Copeland’s life forever and led to a mission of helping others.

Her love of life -- and nature -- fueled Copeland’s recovery after the life-changing accident.

[WATCH more about Copeland’s mission on Georgia Game Changers: a Family 2 Family Special]

“That first moment of going outside, it was just outside the hospital, but I was tuned into the colors. I mean it makes me feel emotional right now even talking about it, the smells, the air, the joy of being alive,” Copeland said.

Copeland fell from a zipline near the Tallapoosa River in May 2012. In a cut on her leg, she developed necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacterial infection.

Doctors had to amputate her hands, feet, and entire left leg.

“A part of me died. A version of me that I was then died,” Copeland said.

Channel 2′s Linda Stouffer was with Copeland in New York City as she shared her story four months after the accident as the first guest on the Katie Couric Show, showing the nation her determination and spirit.

During rigorous rehab, Copeland said she suffered from anxiety and realized how much she needed time outside – eco-therapy.

From that point on, she found a mission: to bridge the gap between accessibility and nature.

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“We know from research that people with disabilities when they’re sedentary and indoors, that increases the likelihood of secondary disorders, secondary mental illnesses occurring,” Copeland said.

So she launched the Aimee Copeland Foundation and All Terrain Georgia, which provides free, high-mobility, all-terrain wheelchairs, now at 12 state parks.

She recently showed Stouffer how the all-terrain wheelchairs work at Sweetwater State Park.

“Where we are right now, 1/4 mile maybe from the parking lot, without this chair you couldn’t have gotten this far,” Stouffer told Copeland.

“Without this chair, I wouldn’t have been able to go three yards on this trail,” Copeland said. “It’s really these tracks that are really amazing. So, they’re really wide tracks, and because these tracks are so long, it can get up over obstacles in a way that a regular wheel cannot.”

The chairs are available for people 16 years old and up, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to hike, people who use a wheelchair, or anyone with a physical barrier.

“I’ve had people saying, people with disabilities saying, this is a game changer,” Copeland told Stouffer.

Copeland now has a master’s degree in psychology. She opened a holistic retreat and runs a group counseling practice in North Carolina, where she and her husband now live, helping people find joy in what her foundation calls the magic of the outdoors.

“To me, one of the ways of navigating through it is acknowledging it and acknowledging that things are challenging, and together as a community we can make a difference for each other,” Copeland said.

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