Texas girl,10, fighting for life after contracting rare brain-eating amoeba while swimming
When ten-year-old Lily Avant from Texas went for a swim in a river near her home, little did she know what awaited her. A few days later, she complained of headaches and got a fever- the little girl is currently in a medically induced coma after contracting a Naegleria fowler, a single-celled organism known as the brain-eating amoeba.
Her aunt, Wendy Scott who has been actively documenting her niece’s struggle on Facebook shared that Lilly complained of fever on Sunday, September 8. She was taken to the doctors, who sent her back home assuming it was a viral fever, as it was doing the rounds in her school. But the little Lily’s condition kept deteriorating, and on Tuesday, September 10, she was rushed into the emergency room when she woke up unresponsive. Scott explained, “She was eyes open, she was there, but she wasn't speaking. Nothing."
The hospital determined she was suffering from a devastating infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The disease of the central nervous system is caused by Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba typically found in freshwater bodies such as ponds, lakes and rivers. According to information released by CDC, Early signs of amoebic meningitis are like symptoms of bacterial meningitis, including headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck. After the start of symptoms, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within about 5 days.
There were just 145 known cases of Americans being infected by the amoeba between 1962 and 2018. Only four cases are known to have survived after contracting the infection since 1962. Lily’s family is hopeful that she might be the fifth person to survive it.
On Saturday, September 14, Scott confirmed to TODAY that Avant is still in stable condition at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth. “We’re at the point where the doctors have exhausted their resources," Scott said. "Lily is still fighting, she's still saying strong. We're just waiting for God to step in and perform a miracle. She is in stable condition, she is still in the ICU currently, and that's basically where we're at. We just need lots of prayers."
Earlier this year in July, a man in North Carolina died from the rare brain-eating amoeba after swimming at a water park.