Lana Kuykendall: New mom battling flesh-eating bacteria clings to life

A South Carolina woman who gave birth to twins and then became ravaged by a flesh-eating bacteria has undergone seven surgeries and is clinging to life, her brother said Sunday.

Lana Kuykendall, 36, has been kept “intubated and sedated ” at Greenville Memorial Hospital since May 11, her brother, Brian Swaffer, told CNN.

“We don’t know what the next day is going to bring, so we’re just trusting the Lord,” he added.

Kuykendall’s twins, Ian and Abigail, were bo May 7 and are “healthy and doing well,” Swaffer said.

But their mother’s response remains touch-and-go.

“She does respond sometimes, you can see in her blood pressure,” Swaffer told CNN. “She has opened her eyes a little bit at times. But that’s pretty much it.”

Doctors said Kuykendall’s infection was caused by Group A streptococcus bacteria and diagnosed her with necrotizing fasciitis — which breaks down the body’s muscles, fat and skin tissue.

It’s unclear when the paramedic became ill, but after giving birth and retuing home, she reportedly complained to her husband of severe leg pain .

He took her to the hospital after noticing a spot on her leg began to spread, said NBC affiliate WYFF in Greenville.

Updates on Kuykendall’s status came as reports surfaced of a third victim who was battling a flesh-eating bacteria in Georgia.

Bobby Vaughn, 32, a landscaper from Cartersville, was recovering at an Augusta hospital on Friday after having five surgeries to remove infected tissue, CBS Atlanta reported.

Vaughn said he thinks he caught the bacteria from a cut he suffered while on the job.

The infection “went from the size of a little peanut to a grapefruit fast,” he told CBS Atlanta.

The station said he was in good condition at Doctor's Hospital in Augusta, the same hospital where 24-year-old grad student Aimee Copeland was battling the infection.

Copeland caught the infection after she fell during a zip lining accident on May 1.

She has had one leg amputated, and doctors told her she would have to have her hands and remaining foot removed.

It doesn’t appear those amputations have happened yet, according to a blog Copeland’s father has been keeping about her recovery.

Necrotizing fasciitis can be caused by many common bacteria, including some that live on the skin.

The bacteria can enter the body through a cut, and the flesh-eating disease it triggers, while rare, can require the amputation of limbs to stop it from progressing, doctors said.

For Kuykendall, the surgeries have required diseased tissue to be removed, but no limb amputations.