A 36-year-old mother suffering from a severe "flesh-eating" bacterial infection met her newborn babies for the first time since she was hospitalized nearly a month ago.

Lana Kuykendall, 36, who was hospitalized at Greenville Memorial Hospital in South Carolina just days after giving birth, held her month-old twins Abigail and Ian for the first time on Thursday.

"She has improved tremendously over the last week," Kuykendall's husband Darren said in a statement Thursday. "Although she is still in ICU, we believe she is on the road to recovery. She looks more and more like herself."

The new-mom has had almost 20 surgical procedures to contain and treat the infection but has not had to have any limbs amputated.

She noticed a painful spot on her leg and when she went to the hospital she was diagnosed with "necrotizing fasciitis."

Kuykendall's case is the second to bring massive attention to the threatening bacteria. Aimee Copeland, a 24-year-old student currently treated at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, developed the infection and has had her leg and hands amputated.

She had an accident on May 1 where she fell into a river and cut her leg. Doctors believe she got the bacteria from the river's water.