Sebastian DeLeon, a 16-year-old camp counselor in Florida, was vacationing with his family in Orlando earlier this month when he got a headache so severe that he wouldn’t let anybody touch him.
His parents rushed him to Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando on Aug. 7, where he was diagnosed with a rare infection of a brain-eating amoeba.
It was “divine intervention and gut instinct,” Dr. Dennis Hernandez said, that led to the timely diagnosis of Naegleria fowleri, which kills 97 percent of its victims.
The manufacturer of the drug that’s used to fight the amoeba is also in Orlando, and the company delivered the drug to the hospital in 12 minutes.
DeLeon’s parents and physicians shared their experience during a news conference on Tuesday morning. Sebastian is still recovering at the hospital but is ready to be discharged, doctors said.
According to health officials, DeLeon was infected after swimming in contaminated water in private property in southern Florida.
The amoeba goes up the nose to the brain and then into the spinal cord. Most infections occur during swimming, diving, water skiing and wake boarding.
The most dangerous time for infection is during the hot summer months, when water temperatures rise. The amoeba can be found in lakes, rivers, hot springs worldwide,
Early signs of infection include severe headache, vomiting and fever, which can then advance to stiff neck, seizures and coma.
There have been 138 cases in the United States between 1962 and 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.