Tuesday, May 03, 2016

California woman, 24, dies after becoming infected with a brain-eating amoeba following a swim in the Colorado River

A California woman lost her life after what appeared to be a harmless weekend enjoying her birthday at a fresh-water river. Kelsey McClain, 24, passed away after a brain-eating amoeba left her brain dead after entering her nose while she was swimming in the Colorado River. McClain was staying at Fisher's Landing, a resort along the Colorado River just hours away from her home in El Cajon, California. She spent most of her 24th birthday enjoying activities in the fresh water and felt fine when she came home. But days later she had a pounding headache and couldn't turn her head without excruciating pain. Doctors were baffled by her symptoms and at first thought she had bacterial meningitis. 'It was apparent to everyone this was progressing,' McClain's mother Jennifer told ABC 15. After rounds of treatments and antibiotics, McClain had a grand mal seizure. When nurses checked her eyes, they were fully dilated and she was pronounced brain dead.  Her organs were to be donated until her spinal fluid was checked by a lab at UC San Diego and Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba, was discovered. Her organs now cannot be donated. There have been 133 recorded cases in 50 years and only three people survived, ABC 15 reported. A partner at Fisher's Landing said she had never end heard of the amoeba until McClain fell ill...more

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