Girl with brain-eating parasite gets experimental drug

[Hum]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark ?  A 12-year-old girl from Arkansas who contracted a brain-eating parasite during a trip to a water park has improved slightly after being treated with an experimental drug.

Kali Hardig was so exhausted when she first arrived at Arkansas Children?s Hospital that she couldn?t answer the doctor?s questions.

?(The doctor) asked me several times did I think Kali was being like what you call a hypochondriac,? Kali?s mom, Traci, recalled.

After listening to what the family had to say and running tests, doctors learned Kali was suffering from a rare and typically deadly infection ? a brain-eating amoeba was swimming around in her spinal fluid. Kali?s parents were told she might have only days to live.

To preserve brain tissue, Kali?s doctors induced a coma and cooled her body to 93 degrees. Doctors also turned to the Centers for Disease Control for an experimental anti-amoeba drug. Doctors were at first unsure if the experimental drug would help, but there is no longer any trace of the amoeba in Kali?s spinal fluid.

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[FloatingFatMan]

... Wow. I really hope she recovers...

[astropheed Veteran]

Awesome! Woo Medical Science!

[Steven P. Administrators]

Wow yeah, hope shes OK now :S

[Mohitster]

Hope she recovers soon.. Science rules!

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

This stuff gives me creeps.

 

I've heard some insects (like a cockroach) can lay eggs inside the human ears while a subject is asleep :omg:

 

I hope the girl recovers without any complications.

[Tuishimi]

Poor kid.  :(   I'd be beside myself if my kid was hit by that.

[exograpix]

May doctors and god help her in this ordeal, now days science has progressed a lot, but this particular disease is very tough to cure. 

[spenser.d]

Apparently this is the second case of this from the same water park in three years now. Given the general rarity of it, that's gotta be an issue for them to look into.

Its pretty cool that they have a potential option to treat it now though. Hopefully it didn't do too much damage already.

[Growled Member]

I hope she's okay. Science can do some amazing things these days.

[Lord Method Man]

 

 

I've heard some insects (like a cockroach) can lay eggs inside the human ears while a subject is asleep :omg:

 

 

And they force you to do whatever Khan tells you to do.

[Hum]

LITTLE ROCK, AR (AP) ? A kind of meningitis caused by a brain-eating amoeba called Naegleria fowleri is incredibly rare, but it's almost always fatal.

So it's remarkable that 12-year-old Kali Hardig is alive and responsive after she was diagnosed with such a case last month in Arkansas.

"Up to Kali's case, there were only two reported survivors," said Dr. Mark Heulitt, one of the doctors who treated her. "Now, Kali's the third."

There have been nearly 130 cases reported in the United States since 1962, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before Kali, there was only one known U.S. survivor, plus another nonfatal case documented in Mexico.

Health officials say Kali's success is due in large part to experimental treatment and early detection and diagnosis.

Kali's mother, Traci Hardig, brought her to Arkansas Children's Hospital with a nasty fever on July 19 ? not long after Kali went swimming at a water park in central Arkansas.

The state Department of Health has said that now-shuttered park, which features a sandy-bottomed lake, is likely where Kali came into contact with the amoeba.

Naegleria fowleri (pronounced nuh-GLEER'-ee-uh FOW'-lur-ee) is often found in warm bodies of freshwater, such as lakes, rivers and hot springs. The amoeba typically enters the body through the nose as people are swimming or diving. It can then travel to the brain, causing a devastating infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM. That's what Kali has been battling.

Initial symptoms usually start within one to seven days and may include headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. The disease progresses rapidly, and other symptoms can include stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, seizures and hallucinations.

Moreover, the infection destroys brain tissue and can cause brain swelling and death.

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[WAQT]

I hope the girl recovers soon. We had the same bacteria infect our water system here that left 22 people dead in week, that was scary, kept water heated for showers in summer, still shiver thinking about it.

[compl3x]

This stuff gives me creeps.

 

I've heard some insects (like a cockroach) can lay eggs inside the human ears while a subject is asleep :omg:

 

I hope the girl recovers without any complications.

 

 

How the fugg would a cockroach get inside someone's ear?  :laugh:

[FloatingFatMan]

How the fugg would a cockroach get inside someone's ear?  :laugh:

 

Easy!

 

[Charisma Veteran]

Man, that is scary stuff. Glad they found this solution and got it to her quickly enough.

[Lezard]

This just in, Experimental drug gona bad, turned brain eating parasite host into zombie, brace yourself humanity!