>>> race to save another woman who’s battling a rare flesh-eating bacteria. the latest case, a new mother from south carolina on the heels of the infection of a young woman in georgia. nbc’s gabe gutierrez has details on this. gabe, good morning.
>> reporter: good morning, matt. right now this woman is in critical condition here, but she has stabilized. and friends and relatives are hopeful that she’ll not only be able to survive, but that she’ll keep all of her limbs. lana kiuykendall had expected to spend the week bonding with her newborn twins.
>> lana got to hold her babies once.
>> reporter: instead the new mother is fighting for her life.
>> so you’ve got two babies that don’t have a mom right now.
>> reporter: the 36-year-old gave birth at the beginning of last week in an atlanta hospital. a week ago today she was released and drove back home here to greenville, south carolina . friday morning, friends say, she noticed a spot in the back of her left leg. at first, kuykendall, a paramedic, thought it was a blood clot.
>> around 11:00 , 11:30 is when she saw it. it was about the size of her palm. her husband said. and then by the time she went to surgery and they thought they knew what it was, it had consumed practically her whole leg.
>> reporter: since then, her husband, darren, a firefighter, has stood by her through four surgeries.
>> it all happened kind of quickly. she deteriorated quickly after coming to the hospital.
>> reporter: this case comes just days after another woman in georgia was also diagnosed with what’s called necrotizing fascitis. aimee copeland got the bacteria after cutting herself in a zip lining incident west of atlanta. so far she’s lost her left leg, and her family fears she could lose her fingers. but her father says she’s improving.
>> at this point, seeing her spirits high, knowing that she can communicate with us, and we have some wonderful moments in there with her. and the visiting hours just runs far too short.
>> reporter: these infections are rare. between 500 and 1,000 cases each year in the u.s. and they are often lethal. a quarter of those infected die. in south carolina , kuykendall’s friends are thankful she went to the er so quickly. they’re now raising money for her treatment and waiting for her to breathe without a respirator.
>> leaning over and talking into her ear and then watching the heart monitor as you talk, you kind of see that heart rate go up a little bit. i truly believe that she hears us and she knows.
>> reporter: a paramedic that has dedicated her life to helping others now finds her friends helping her. and right now those friends are helping take care of those two beautiful twins. many of those friends work here at greenville memory. we’re told that little boy and thelittle girl are doing just fine. but right now, matt, it is still a mystery how their mother came down with this flesh-eating bacteria.
>> gabe gutierrez, gabe, thank you very much.
Lana Kuykendall, a 36-year-old mother to newborn twins, is in critical condition as she fights off a flesh-eating bacteria, just days after a Georgia woman was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis. NBC’s Gabe Gutirrez reports.
