A brain-eating amoeba has made its way into the body of Houston star athlete Michael Riley Jr., 14. Michael, who is now confined at the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, is fighting for his life because of the naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba which dwells in fresh water.
Occurring naturally in fresh water, the so-called "brain-eating amoeba" can reportedly cause irreversible damage, even death, to those infected through the nose. While cases are rare, when it strikes a person, it's known as deadly and only a few have been known to survive an infection.
According to the U.S. Centers and Disease Control, only three out of 132 people have survived an infection from the brain-eating amoeba in the U.S. between 1963 and 2013.
"When a doctor comes in teary eyes, crying you know it's not good," said Michael's mother, Cassandre Riley, as told to ABC News affiliate KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas.
On August 22, the Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services said they were notified of a suspected amoeba infection. However, at the time, they could not confirm the person infected to be the junior Olympian due to privacy.
According to Michael's family, they believe the teenager contracted the infection from the brain-eating amoeba following his trip with teammates to the lake at the the Sam Houston National Forest on August 13. ABC News reported that Michael was playing in the lake when he contracted the infection.
About a week later, on August 19, Michael, who has qualified for the Junior Olympics thrice, said he was experiencing a headache. Within 24 hours, he was found with a fever and appeared confused and disoriented, the family's website said. As the family reached the hospital, doctors quickly assumed that the teen indeed have the rare brain-eating, naegleria fowleri amoeba inside his system.
"Coming from a lake you wouldn't think he's going to the doctors office and they tell you he has a couple days to live," Mike Riley, Michael's father, told KTRK-TV.
Mike added that the doctors at the Texas Children's Hospital had put the teen in an induced coma. They had also drilled a hole in his skull for pressure to be reduced. His body was also cooled in order to preserve body functions.
Infectious disease expert, Dr. William Schaffner, who works at Vanderbilt University Medical School, said the U.S. CDC might be able to provide Michael with "miltefosine," an experimental drug which has been approved in other countries to treat parasitic infection.
According to the U.S. CDC, the brain-eating amoeba can infect swimmers when water gets into the nose, allowing the organism to enter the brain, which results the organ to swell and become inflamed. Symptoms suffered by infected people include fever, vomiting, nausea and hallucinations.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the first PAM infections were recognized in 1965 in Australia. Over the next two decades, multiple deaths were reported linked to the amoeba.
Michael's family has been provided a GoFundMe page. According to Click2Houston.com, their page has received $2,800 in donations so far.
