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Brain-eating amoeba kills Texas boy after splash pad visit

ARLINGTON, Texas — A Texas child died earlier this month after likely contracting a rare, but fatal, brain-eating amoeba at an Arlington splash pad, and human error could be to blame.

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The boy’s name and age have not been made public, but Lemuel Randolph, Arlington’s deputy city manager, told KDFW that he died Sept. 11 after being hospitalized at Cook Children’s Hospital for a week following a visit to the splash pad at Don Misenhimer Park.

“To know that there is a role that the city may have played in that is highly disturbing,” Randolph told the TV station, after an investigation revealed poor maintenance practices at the city’s splash pads could have contributed to the fatal contamination.

City leaders told KXAS that they were notified of the child’s hospitalization following a diagnosis of primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, on Sept. 5 and immediately closed the park’s splash pad and then preemptively closed all public splash pads for the remainder of the year as a precaution.

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In a statement released Monday, the city said an investigation by the Tarrant County Public Health Department “determined two possible sources for the child’s exposure to water containing Naegleria fowleri: the family’s home in Tarrant County or the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad in Arlington.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the parasite Naegleria fowleri typically infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose. The parasitic infections most often occur when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater, such as in lakes and rivers. Thirty-seven U.S. cases were reported between 2010 and 2020, and only 151 since 1962.

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“Once the amoeba enters the nose, it travels to the brain where it causes PAM, which is usually fatal,” the CDC stated.

Meanwhile, early-stage symptoms can include a severe headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. As the infection worsens, patients can develop a stiff neck and experience seizures or hallucinations, according to the CDC.

After the child was infected, water samples sent to the CDC confirmed Don Misenhimer Park as the source of his infection, including the pad’s underground storage tank and the pad’s surface nozzles, KDFW reported.

“This organism likes warm moist environments like hot water,” Tarrant County Public Health Chief Epidemiologist Russ Jones told the TV station. “So it gets access to the brain and starts feeding.”

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The city’s investigation revealed that its parks and recreation employees did not consistently record, or in some cases, did not conduct required daily water quality testing at Don Misenhimer Park and the Beacon Recreation Center. Those inconsistencies led to chlorine levels registering below the minimum requirements during the time frame the boy made three visits to the splash pad, KDFW reported.

Meanwhile, the CDC confirmed that the city’s water supply has not been compromised, KXAS reported.