How A Young Girl Survived Being Infected By A Deadly Brain-Eating Amoeba

Center for Disease Control

The 12-year-old Kali Hardig of Arkansas is now the third survivor of the rare but nearly always fatal infection caused by the brain-eating parasite Naegleria fowleri.

Kali, who was admitted to Arkansas Children's Hospital on July 19 with a high fever and vomiting, had contracted the brain-eating amoeba while swimming at Willow Springs Water Park in south Little Rock, Ark., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Her condition is stable now and she is responsive, the doctors who treated her said. Early detection and experimental treatments may have contributed to her survival from a highly deadly disease that had put her in intensive unit care on a ventilator for weeks. [The 9 Oddest Medical Case Reports]