Posted on 08/13/2013 10:26:03 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The new patient is 12-year-old Zachary Reyna, his family told CNN affiliate WBBH. A spokesperson for the Hendry-Glades Health Department in LaBelle, Florida, said that the department wouldn't release the age or name of the infected person for privacy reasons.
Reyna's family told WBBH that Reyna was kneeboarding with friends in a water filled ditch by his house on August 3. He slept the entire next day.
His family told WBBH that Reyna was an active and healthy seventh grader, so sleeping that much was unusual. His mother took him to the hospital immediately. He underwent brain surgery and doctors diagnosed him with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, according to WBBH. He is currently in the intensive care unit at the Miami Children's Hospital.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Prayers up.
Another reason to leave Florida off my bucket list
Chlorinated pools OK
Lakes and ponds NG especially in warm climates like Fl.
Kali Hardig just survived...3rd survivor out of 150 since the 1950s in Little Rock, AR....she is writing her own name....this is unprecidented....other 2 “survivors” basicially vegetables.
I swam in southern lakes that were pretty stagnant. It is a wonder that I ever survived childhood.
A brother of a friend died from this same thing. He was 22, knee boarding in Orlando. He was sick the next day, died four days after knee boarding. The best defense is a cheap, old fashioned clip style nose plug to keep the water out.
If you go to Fl try to stay out of water filled ditches.
Fl is loaded with open drainage ditches on the sides of major and back roads.
Not the best place for water sports.
“The best defense is a cheap, old fashioned clip style nose plug to keep the water out.”
The best defense is to stay out of un-chlorinated standing water and do your best to instill that rule into your kids brain before the bug eats it.
Prayers for the young man.
The ailment is most often contracted by diving or swimming underwater in a drainage canal or polluted lake in the summer. Drowning is the far greater risk, but a child slowly dying in an ICU from a rare disease naturally attracts more public interest.
God bless this little boy and his parents. Send a lot of angels to them.
But seriously, poor kid.
Me too. They may not have been really stagnant though.
In Louisiana, there was one creek with a deep spot about 20 x 20 and a good cliff for jumpin'. I heard they put salt blocks in the creek to drive off the snakes.
We used to hike down the creeks in the National Forest near the house all the time. I can remember stepping in quick sand and having to find a branch to fish a shoe out of it. We'd carry our rifles just in case.
Then there were a couple of lakes we used to frequent. But the lakes had fish in them, so I guess they weren't too stagnant. I remember the health department did check the lakes to make sure they were fit to swim in, but I bet they didn't know about brain eating amoeba back then.
That is pretty horrible. My thoughts are with the boy and his parents.
Yeah, swamp living aint all it’s cracked up to be.
from futurama.....brain slug.
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