Girl Battling Brain-Eating Amoeba Improves Continuously

A 12-year old girl who once suffered from a brain-eating amoeba is now recovering, according to Fox8.

The girl who is from Arkansas was infected by the brain-eating parasite but is now getting better and better, said Tom Bonner, spokesman of Arkansas Children's Hospital, on Sunday.

Kali Hardig is now able to eat, drink, smile and talk, Bonner said. "She is even walking with assistance during therapy sessions.

Hardig entered the hospital just this summer and she was in critical condition - unresponsive and unable to breathe without the assistance of a breathing tube.

Her doctors have been in virtually uncharted territories as they treat her for the rare amoeba also known as Naegleria fowleri.

Of the 128 cases in the past half-century, there have only been two patients who survived, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hardig was listed as one of the two who recently contacted the deadly parasite. Zachary Reyna of Florida did not survive even after he received the same experimental drug that was also given to Hardig.

Between 2001 and 2010, there were approximately 32 reported cases of Naegleria fowleri in the United States, the CDC said.