I was 12 when I caught a brain-eating amoeba and spent a month in a coma - I'm one of 5 people to ever beat infection READ MORE: Brain-eating amoeba seen up close under microscope By Luke Andrews Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 16:32, 24 September 2024 | Updated: 16:48, 24 September 2024 e-mail View comments A mother-of-one is revealing how she overcame her fear of water after nearly dying from a brain-eating amoeba she caught while swimming as a child. Kali Hardig from Arkansas , was 12 years old when she fell into a lake and water went up her nose, exposing her to the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri.
A few hours after the accident, the young girl developed a slight headache, but within 24 hours was rushed to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock barely conscious. A spinal tap revealed she had primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), or severe brain inflammation, which had been caused by the amoeba. The infection kills nearly 100 percent of people who have it.
Ms Hardig spent a month in a coma and through intensive treatments, became one of only five people in the US to survive the infection since 1978. Kali Hardig, 23, pictured above with her one-year-old daughter Adalynn, revealed the infection left her scared of water for more than a year Ms Hardig is pictured above after recovering from the infection at Willow Springs Water Park, where she says she contracted the amoeba Doctors at the hospital initially tried to turn Ms Hardig away, sayin.
