A recovering 12-year old girl from Arkansas who previously contacted with a brain-eating amoeba is now able to enjoy a dip at a hospital swimming pool, according to ABC News.
The rare infection is known to be very fatal and the girl is one of the few who has survived the rare disease. Her rehabilitation physician confirmed that Kali Hardig went swimming on Friday. In July, Hardig was in a critical condition after being diagnosed with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis - a fatal form of meningitis caused by the parasite Naegleria fowleri.
Hardig began to show signs of recovery in August, uttering her first words and taking her first steps since the harrowing diagnosis. She was thought to have contacted the brain-eating amoeba from a sandy bottomed lake at Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
The 85-year old water park, which was linked to an earlier Naegleria infection in 2010 has been closed since then. While Hardig continues to regain her strength in the hospital, her mother wanted her to feel comfortable in the water again, Esther Tompkins, Kali's rehab physician and a doctor of osteopathic medicine at Alabama Children's Hospital, told ABC News.
"Her mom noticed that she was somewhat fearful of water, which is obviously where she got the ameoba from," Tompkins said. "Her mom wanted her to work through her fear of water and the perfect place to do that was the pool at the hospital. She always enjoyed swimming before she got sick and her mom would like to have her enjoy that again."
Kali took steps to conquer her fear of the water on Friday afternoon, spending an hour swimming at the hospital's pool alongside her mother and three therapists, Tompkins said.
