Teen one of few to survive brain-eating amoeba
A 16-year-old South Florida boy defied long medical odds by becoming only the fourth patient in the USA to survive a battle with a braineating amoeba.
Sebastian DeLeon, a camp counselor, contracted the dreaded Naegleria fowleri infection after swimming on private property in Broward County, according to the Florida Department of Health.
DeLeon began developing meningitis-like symptoms Aug. 5 during a family vacation to Orlando, and he soon developed such an intense headache that he could not tolerate people touching him, said Humberto Liriano, a pediatric intensivist at Florida Hospital for Children.
DeLeon’s family took him to the Florida Hospital for Children emergency room Aug. 7, where doctors gave him medications, placed him in a chemically induced coma and lowered his body temperature to 33 degrees during a 72-hour stretch.
“We woke him up, and we decided to take the breathing tube out. And within hours, he spoke,” Liriano recalled, choking up and struggling to maintain his composure during a
news conference Tuesday morning.
“Since then, he’s done tremendously well. We are very optimistic. He’s walking. He’s speaking. I saw him this morning. He’s ready to go home,” Liriano said.
Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba commonly found in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and streams. If the amoeba enters the body through the nose, it can cause an extremely rare and devastating infection of the brain, said Rajan Wadhawan, the hospital’s chief medical officer.
Just four of the 138 people infected in the USA in the past 50 years have survived, giving the amoeba an almost 97% mortality rate, Wadhawan said.
DeLeon’s parents briefly attended Tuesday’s news conference, then returned to their son’s hospital room.
“We are so thankful that God has given us the miracle through this medical team and this hospital for having our son back and having him full of life. He’s a very energetic, adventurous, wonderful teen,” said Brunilda Gonzalez, DeLeon’s mother.