He had an earache and it was believed to be a simple ear infection, like many children his age. Then a few fever streaks and a feeling of nausea. Finally death. It’s a story that comes from Colombia, where a 10 year old girl, Stefanía Villamizar GonzalezShe died of oneBrain-eating amoebaa bacterium that lives in fresh water with different temperatures and is often warm to allow its development.
The episode dates back to this summer and according to the story told by the little girl’s relatives, Stefania was in Santa Marta, a city on the Caribbean Sea Colombia, for a vacation with his family. From day one, the little girl spent most of her time indoors Swimming pool the structure in which they stayed. The water tub was one of the main attractions for all the children and therefore also a place for Stefania to meet new friends, but just two days after her arrival she started feeling pain in her ears. As the days went by, the ear pain did not subside, on the contrary, his symptoms worsened with the onset of fever and retching. After days of suffering, the little girl’s mother was persuaded to take Stefania to the hospital and, after carrying out the necessary tests, the doctors determined that it was an ear infection and there was no cause for concern.
After being discharged from the hospital, the little girl felt less and less pain in her ears, her fever dropped, and the nausea stopped affecting her. However, the newfound sense of well-being did not last long. As the girl’s mother said, on the morning of July 4th, she went into Stefania’s room to wake her up and immediately noticed that the little girl was having great difficulty getting out of bed, as if she had no strength at all to lift even one limb. . Also, the little girl didn’t want the shutters open because the sunlight hurt her eyes terribly. After several attempts, the little girl managed to get up and struggled to reach the bathroom to take a shower, but again, according to her mother’s story, she was in the middle of a crisis crampsFor this reason, health workers were contacted and subsequently hospitalized. On July 26, Stefania was diagnosed with brain death and was pronounced dead two days later.
The cause of death was later determined to be infection Naegleria Fowleri, also known as the brain-eating amoeba, which lives in water and enters the brain through the nose, where it causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, a rare and usually fatal brain infection. Here it multiplies and destroys tissue.
A relative of the little girl wrote on social media: “We share our story so that all families can take the necessary precautions.” We are devastated, devastated. Stefanía was a tennis player, skater and ballet dancer who dreamed of becoming a gymnast. The operations manager of the hotel where Stefanía is believed to have contracted the amoeba has pledged to improve safety standards.”