A rare amoeba that eats parts of the human brain was discovered to be the killer of a Kansas girl. She was 9 years old when she was pronounced dead from the internal damage caused by the amoeba in her brain.
The girl likely picked up the deadly amoeba after swimming in the lakes around the area she lived. She swam in different areas of water in a period of two weeks.
The girl's name is Hally "Bug" Nicole Yust, and reports say she loved all things involving water. Sadly, that may have led to her short lifespan, in a rare incident involving a rare species of amoeba. Her home was Spring Hill, Indiana in Johnson County, a quiet Midwest community with plenty of lakes and other water sources such as nearby Hillside Lake.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment made their determination based upon evidence of the deadly amoeba. The results of their tests confirmed that Yust died from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) caused by Naegleria fowleri.
The amoeba is known as a brain-eater and lives in freshwater habitats. Officials believe Yust probably contracted the infection from water getting up her nose. Yust was an enthusiastic water skier.
According to sources, the amoeba is very rare and less than 200 cases have been reported in the United States in the past 50 years. Experts say that once the organism has made its way up the nose into the brain, there isn't much anyone can do to prevent death. Only one case was reported as an exception. That was according to Johnson County Health Department investigator Tiffany Geiger.
The family told reporters that they hoped her daughter's death didn't scare people away from water, something the 9-year-old girl loved dearly. The family reportedly set up a scholarship in Yust's name to provide opportunities in education to girls that loved the sport of basketball, like Yust did.
One report recounted that the girl was hospitalized with "meningitis-like symptoms." Those symptoms reportedly included a headache, fever, nausea, stiffness in the neck and a confused state.
Noseplugs are one possibly way to avoid the unlikely, but just as deadly, encounter with the brain-eating amoeba that recently killed a once joyous little girl in Kansas.
Yust's parents described her as an outgoing child with an endless list of interests including basketball and water sports. She wanted to play basketball at Kansas State. She left behind a brother, two sisters and two parents.
