Child dies of brain-eating amoeba likely contracted at Texas splash pad, officials say
CBSN
A Texas child who died after contracting a rare, brain-eating amoeba was likely infected at a local splash pad, the City of Arlington announced in a press release Monday. Records from the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad showed employees did not consistently monitor water quality levels at the time of the child's visits to the park, the city said.
On September 5, local health officials were notified that a child was hospitalized at Cook Children's Medical Center with "primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare and often fatal infection caused by the Naegleria fowleri ameba," the press release said.
The child died in a hospital on September 11. Their name has not been released.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.