ATLANTA — A 17-year-old girl from Georgia, who recently died from an extremely rare brain-eating amoeba, is being remembered as a “remarkable young soul.”
Megan Ebenroth’s parents told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was swimming at a lake near where she lives in McDuffie County on July 11, when she caught the rare brain infection, Naegleria fowleri.
“I’m still in shock,” her mother, Christina Ebenroth, told the AJC on Monday. “But I can’t keep silent about her. She was extraordinary.”
Ebenroth’s mother told the AJC that Megan woke up with a bad headache about four days after going swimming. She ultimately decided to take her to urgent care where Megan was treated for a migraine.
When her head continued to hurt badly, Ebenroth took Megan to a nearby emergency room. Megan was given IV fluids and a series of blood tests. At one point, doctors had to drill a hole in her skull to help relieve her brain swelling.
Ebenroth told the newspaper that it wasn’t until Friday, July 21, that someone brought up the possibility that she could have caught the brain-eating amoeba. The next day Megan passed away.
Ebenroth said what happened to her daughter was a freak accident.
“They were so caring; I had the best doctors and nurses. I don’t blame anyone,” Christina Ebenroth told the AJC. “This was an act of God. Right now, I’ve got to figure out why.”
Megan Ebenroth was going into her senior year. The teen had a passion for the arts, especially drama, and was a straight “A” student, according to her obituary.
“She was my world,” the mother said.
According to her mother, Megan had her heart set on going to the University of Georgia, which was something she had wanted since the sixth grade.
It’s only the sixth case of a Naegleria fowleri infection in Georgia since 1962. Only three people in the U.S. get infected every year, but almost all infections are fatal.
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