health
Aug 4, 2023 | 9:58am
Star student Megan Evenros, 17, tragically died last month after contracting a rare brain-eating amoeba while swimming in Georgia.
The death was reported last month, but the victim’s identity has not been confirmed to date.
“I am still in shock,” said the boy’s mother, Chrissie Evenroth. Atlanta Journal Constitution When discussing the death of a “special” student. “But I can’t keep quiet about her.”
Megan and several friends reportedly went swimming at a lake near their home in Deering, McDuffie County, on July 11.
High school students wanted to enjoy the last few weeks of summer before the start of senior year.
Four days later, Megan woke up with a severe headache and had her mother drive her to the hospital.
Doctors diagnosed the young man with sinusitis, prescribed antibiotics, and sent him home.
Unfortunately, the teenage girl’s symptoms continued to worsen over the course of the week, and she began experiencing fevers, migraines, and loss of balance. Reported by WLTX.
“Her mental state changed so quickly that everything was so vague,” Chrissy said.
With little other recourse, the distraught parents took their daughter to the hospital, where she was quickly intubated and medically placed in a coma.
At one point, doctors opened the patient’s skull to relieve swelling in the brain.
“We weren’t at a stage where Meghan could come back,” lamented the desperate mother, who still didn’t know what was causing her daughter’s symptoms.
It wasn’t until Friday, July 21, that doctors said her complications were caused by an infection with Naegleria fowleri, a now-infamous brain-eating amoeba that swims up people’s noses and colonizes their brains. suggested there is.
Specifically, victims contract primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a devastating condition that causes the destruction of brain tissue and swelling of the brain. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These microscopic monsters are found all over the world, but they live mainly in warm freshwater such as lakes, rivers, hot springs, and even poorly maintained swimming pools.
Naegleria fowleri cannot survive in salt water and cannot be transmitted from person to person.
Unfortunately, the prognosis for victims of this amebic infection is poor, with a reported 97% fatality rate.
As in Megan, symptoms begin 1 to 12 days after infection, initially with severe headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting, followed by stiff neck, seizures, and coma.
Death usually occurs within 5 days.
The day after she was diagnosed, Megan tragically passed away, 11 days after she first contracted the parasite.
McDuffie County coroner Paul Johnson later admitted that the senior with HS had died of a rare brain infection, making it the sixth amoeba-related death in Georgia since 1962.
State health officials have refrained from disclosing the lake’s location, fearing that it might imply it was the only body of water that could harbor the parasite.
“It doesn’t feel real,” said Chrissie Evenroth, speaking of her daughter’s death. “I feel like she’s about to walk into my house. It doesn’t feel like this happened to us.”
Although this ended tragically for Megan, she is remembered by friends and family as an aspiring student with big dreams and a vibrant personality.
Ever since sixth grade, Megan dreamed of attending the University of Georgia and worked hard to achieve her goals of earning a degree straight and becoming president of the Beta Club and vice-president of the Spain Club.
The industrious academic had recently joined his high school’s tennis team to help finish his résumé.
Megan’s mother, Chrissy, said she and her daughter were “best friends”.
She explained: “She tells people that I’m her best friend, but I said, ‘Honey, I can’t be your best friend.’ And about three weeks ago, she said, ‘I’m your best friend.’ Come on, Mama, you know I’m your best friend’
The boy’s funeral was held on July 26 at the family’s church, Fort Creek Baptist Church, in Deering, Georgia.
In light of the tragedy, Chrissy wants to spread awareness of the disease, which is often undiagnosed until it’s too late.
“Going forward, I think finding ways to diagnose this earlier will be one of my main focuses,” declared the determined parent.
Part of the problem is that only a few laboratories in the United States offer specific tests that can detect microbes.
Needless to say, it is often mistaken for viral meningitis. Viral meningitis is a more common disease that has similar symptoms but is much more curable.
Of the 157 confirmed cases of amoeba infection in the United States between 1962 and 2022, only four survived.
Unfortunately, N. fouleri cases are likely to increase significantly in the future. Expansion due to climate change.
Scientists argue that rising temperatures are creating ideal conditions for the increasing breeding of amoebas in the waters of the northern United States.
