( CNN ) -- A South Carolina woman battling a rare flesh-eating bacteria infection has been upgraded to fair condition and is tentatively scheduled for skin-grafting surgery , her family said Thursday . Lana Kuykendall has been in Greenville Memorial Hospital since she was admitted on May 11 , four days after giving birth to twins , Ian and Abigail , in Atlanta . `` She has improved tremendously over the last week , '' said her husband , Darren Kuykendall . `` Although she is still in ICU , we believe she is on the road to recovery . '' WYFF : New mom with flesh-eating bacteria sees twins . The constant IV drips of sedative and pain medicine have stopped and she is receiving them only as needed , Kuykendall said . `` She looks more and more like herself . '' She has undergone almost 20 surgical procedures to treat and contain the spread of the necrotizing fasciitis , according to a statement from the hospital . Advocate : Story of rare bacterial infection raising awareness . `` The treatment required aggressive surgical intervention , but not amputations , '' the statement said . `` In addition to surgeries , she also underwent extensive hyperbaric oxygen therapy . '' The recovery process will be slow , according to the hospital 's epidemiologist . However , `` We believe she has turned the corner , '' Dr. Bill Kelly said . Kuykendall has had `` longer periods of alertness and tries to respond to the people in the room and the conversations going on around her '' over the last few days , the statement said . `` She is able to communicate by blinking her eyes , raising her eyebrows , pointing and mouthing words . '' The 1-month-old twins , a boy and a girl , visited their mother for the first time at the hospital on Wednesday , the statement said . They are being cared for by relatives . Georgia flesh-eating bacteria victim speaks , jokes , father says . `` Lana grinned from ear to ear when she was holding them , '' her husband said . Kuykendall , a paramedic , went to the hospital after noticing a rapidly expanding bruise on her leg , her husband , a firefighter , said last month . She was diagnosed then with necrotizing fasciitis , according the hospital . A number of bacteria , which are common in the environment but rarely cause serious infections , can lead to the disease . When it gets into the bloodstream -- such as through a cut -- doctors typically move aggressively to excise even healthy tissue near the infection site in hopes of ensuring none of the dangerous bacteria remains . iReport : Surviving a flesh-eating disease . The disease attacks and destroys healthy tissue and is fatal about 20 % of the time , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Dr. William Schaffner , chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center , estimated that fewer than 250 such cases occur each year in the United States , though estimates are imprecise because doctors do not have to report the cases to health authorities . CNN 's Jennifer Bixler contributed to this report .
Lana Kuykendall has had a rare flesh-eating bacteria since May 11 . `` She has improved tremendously over the last week , '' her husband says . Kuykendall has had almost 20 surgical procedures to treat the necrotizing fasciitis . She gave birth to twins four days before being diagnosed and hospitaliized .