Louisiana girl, 8, dies after contracting suspected brain-eating amoeba linked to lake swim

Lillian Smart, an 8-year-old girl who health officials believe contracted a brain-eating amoeba while swimming in a northern Louisiana lake, died Saturday at a Ruston hospital from an infection linked to the pathogen.

Lillian died one day after celebrating her eighth birthday.

"The injuries to her brain were too severe for her little body to recover from," the Smart family said in a statement posted Sunday morning on Facebook. "Everyone did everything they could to keep her here. We are heartbroken and honestly do not know what to do next. How do we put one foot in front of the other without our girl?"

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The Louisiana Department of Health announced Wednesday that a state resident had been hospitalized after becoming infected with Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic amoeba that can cause a rare and often deadly brain infection.

State health officials have not publicly identified Lillian as the patient referenced in the announcement. Her family, however, said on social media that she had been admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at a Ruston hospital and identified Naegleria fowleri as the cause of her illness.

The health department said the infection in the case it announced was most likely acquired while the patient was swimming in Lake Claiborne shortly before becoming ill.

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A representative for the Louisiana Department of Health did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Louisiana Department of Health records identify three previous deaths associated with Naegleria fowleri in the state since 2011.

Two happened in 2011. A 20-year-old man in St. Bernard Parish died after using tap water to rinse his sinuses, while a 51-year-old woman in DeSoto Parish died after using tap water for a similar purpose.

In 2013, a 4-year-old boy contracted the amoeba while visiting a home in St. Bernard Parish, where he had played on a slip-and-slide. State officials later reported that CDC testing detected Naegleria fowleri in the parish water system.

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Naegleria fowleri causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, an extremely rare brain infection that can develop when contaminated water enters the nose and the amoeba travels to the brain. People cannot become infected by swallowing contaminated water.

The amoeba is not found in saltwater or properly chlorinated swimming pools.

Symptoms typically begin with headache, fever, nausea and vomiting before progressing to a stiff neck, seizures and coma. Symptoms generally appear about five days after infection, and the disease can lead to death within about one to two weeks.

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About 97% of people who develop PAM die from the infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC reported two PAM cases nationwide last year. Of the 173 infections documented over roughly the past 90 years, nearly 91% occurred in July and August.