Brain-eating amoeba kills man who visited recreational wave pool

Victim suspected of contracting organism through his nose at Texas resort

A battery of tests conducted after the sudden illness and death of a man from southern New Jersey revealed that he died after being infected with Naegleria fowleri, better known as brain-eating amoeba.

The GoFundMe page announcing the death of Fabrizio Stabile, 29, of Ventnor, N.J., one town over from Atlantic City, indicated that Stabile suddenly came down with a severe headache while mowing his lawn on Sept. 16 and died on Sept. 21.

“On Friday September 21st we learned the heartbreaking news that Fabrizio was pronounced dead as a result of this brain-eating amoeba,” the GoFundMe posting said.

According to the Waco, Texas, Tribune-Herald, Stabile is suspected of contracting the amoeba through his nose after going in a wave pool at the BSR Cable Park’s Surf Resort in Waco.

The park voluntarily closed on Friday and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was testing the attraction’s pool water for Naegleria fowleri, the newspaper reported.

There have been no other reports of illnesses at the park.

According to the CDC’s online information, Naegleria fowleri typically infects people through contaminated water in lakes, rivers or streams and usually enters the body through the nose.

Symptoms typically show from one to nine days after the amoeba is contracted and people usually die within about two weeks, according to the CDC.

Between 2008 and 2017, 34 fatal infections were reported across the country, according to USA Today.

Only a handful of people are known to have survived after contracting the braineating amoeba and one of those cases happened in Broward County.

In 2016, a 16-year-old boy who had been swimming on private property in Southwest Ranches later became sick while vacationing with his family in Orlando.

Earlier this year the boy, Sebastian DeLeon of Weston, was the subject of an HLN documentary “Something’s Killing Me with BD Wong.”

DeLeon later told the Sun Sentinel that his battle with Naegleria fowleri was life-changing.

“I don’t go in lakes. I don’t go in rivers. I don’t go near them,” DeLeon said. “The beach I go to because I’m from Puerto Rico and I’m never going to stop going to the beach.”