Broward Teen Beats Odds Against Brain-Eating Amoeba
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BROWARD (CBSMiami) – A Broward teen has beaten the odds against a brain-eating amoeba.
The 16-year-old is now one of just four people in the last 50 years to survive a diagnosis that means in almost every instance death.
Orlando's Florida Hospital for Children, where the teen is being treated, said the death rate is 97 percent.
On Tuesday morning, the team of doctors who helped save the teen will tell their story of racing against the clock.
We'll also hear about how the hospital obtained medication to treat their patient.
Todd McLaughlin is the CEO of Profunda, an Orlando Company that oversees the production of the drug used to treat these brain-eating amoebas.
For privacy reasons, he couldn't tell us if he delivered the drug to the Broward teen, but he did race to get the drug to a patient around the same time the teen was hospitalized.
"I was actually out of town in Boston and was able to call my son, who happened to be home," he explained. "Had him go in to the office, get the product and actually drive the product to the hospital."
While we wait to hear this miraculous story, there are still a lot of questions.
The biggest one: where exactly the teen got this amoeba?
The Florida Department of Health has yet to say where this teen got sick.
Daniel Stermer, the mayor of Weston, originally told CBS4 it was in his city, but then took that statement back. He said he had been misinformed by the health department.
The infection stems from a microscopic, single-cell amoeba called Naegleria fowleri. It is found in the brackish waters of freshwater lakes, ponds and rivers.
It can attack the brain if it gets into the nasal cavity.
Symptoms include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and a stick neck. They usually appear between one to 14 days after infection.
