Two-year-old boy dies of brain-eating bug in Nevada after playing in hot springs
A young boy has died after contracting a deadly brain-eating amoeba while swimming in Nevada.
His mother, Briana Bundy, announced the two-year-old’s death in a Facebook post Tuesday.
She wrote: ‘Woodrow Turner Bundy returned victorious to our father in heaven at 2:56 am.
“He is my hero and I will always be grateful to God for giving me the nicest baby (sic) on earth, and I am grateful to know that one day I will have that child in heaven.”
Woodrow died on July 19 of infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, which is fatal in almost all cases. Only a handful of Americans have ever survived.
Woodrow Bundy’s mother, Briana, announced the two-year-old’s death in a heartbreaking Facebook post on Tuesday.
The pathogen, which thrives in warm water, is believed to have entered his system while he was playing in the Ash Springs hot springs.
Woodrow’s parents sensed something was off when the boy began suffering “flu-like symptoms” last week.
He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors first thought he had meningitis.
They realized too late that he actually had Naegleria fowleri, which has a 97 percent mortality rate.
An amoeba is a tiny, single-celled animal that can be found in warm freshwater, such as lakes and rivers. It cannot survive in salt water and is not contagious from person to person.
Typically, the amoeba enters through the nose and travels through the sinuses to the brain, where it triggers primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare and usually fatal brain infection.
It spreads along the nerves to the brain, where it multiplies and destroys tissue, causing the brain to swell.
In the early stages, patients initially experience headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting, but days and weeks later they may also experience hallucinations and seizures.
Only five people out of more than 150 who contracted the microscopic virus in the US between 1962 and 2023 survived.
In a Facebook post two days ago, Ms Woodrow said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refused to give her son any more medication because it was “beyond the limit of any survivor.”
She added: “He’s currently showing no brain activity, but there are still a few things we’re trying.”
