Washington: A 10-year-old girl has died in the hospital, her family said in a statement on Monday, after she contracted a rare brain-eating amoeba while swimming in a Texas river.
Lily Mae Avant swam in a river and lake over the Labor Day holiday weekend earlier in September, then suffered a headache and a fever the following weekend.
Her health quickly deteriorated, and she was taken to a local hospital, then transferred to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. Her fight for life attracted support from across the United States and around the world.