Brain-Eating Amoeba In South Carolina: 11-Year-Old Girl Dies After Contracting Dangerous Organism From Edisto River

An 11-year-old girl from South Carolina died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba while swimming. Hannah Katherine Collins acquired the dangerous and highly fatal Naegleria fowleri organism on July 24 in the Edisto River.

Collins died on 10:20 PM on Friday, August 5, 12 days after her exposure to the deadly brain-eating amoeba. She was wrapped in the arms of her mother during her time of death, with her brother and grandmother also with her, according to a family statement obtained by the Beaufort Gazette.

On Wednesday night, the family wrote on Facebook from the Medical University of South Carolina that the pressure in Collins' brain "has not subsided and is increasing." The following morning, the family revealed that "the brain pressure is the highest and is threatening" the young girl's life.

Thursday night came and the family's update on Collins' condition took a graver turn. They said there was "irreparable brain damage" even though the hospital did all they could to save her life. In that update, the family revealed that they are just waiting for Collins to succumb to her condition.

The brain-eating amoeba causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), an inflammation of the brain and the cerebral tissue that surrounds it. Though extremely rare in humans (only fewer than 40 cases reported in the last 10 years), the infection is fatal in around 95 percent of the cases, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), as reported by CBS News.

Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist at the SCDHEC, said the brain-eating amoeba is naturally found worldwide but mostly exists in freshwater bodies such as lakes, streams, and rivers. Naegleria fowleri is very difficult to contract and usually dies before it causes infection to the body.

To contract the organism, Bell said a person must be swimming in water contaminated with it. A person must also "jump into the amoeba-containing water feet-first, allowing the water to go up your nose with enough force that the amoeba can make its way to the brain," WCSC reported. Swallowing the organism won't give you an infection.

In Collins' case, the child likely contracted the brain-eating amoeba after using a rope to throw herself into the Edisto River's warm waters, The Washington Post reported. Collins adored being in the water so much, with her father Jeff Collins (who's currently incarcerated for unpaid child support) calling the girl a "river rat."

Collins' doctors tried their best to save her, even using a potentially lifesaving drug called miltefosine that once saved a girl who also contracted the brain-eating amoeba. However, there wasn't enough time for the drug to work on Collins.