LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas girl who has been recovering from a rare and often-fatal infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba went swimming at a hospital pool on Friday.
That marks a milestone for 12-year-old Kali Hardig, who health officials believe got sick because of a trip to a now-shuttered water park.
The amoeba that caused Kali's infection is often found in warm bodies of freshwater. Called Naegleria fowleri, it typically enters the body through a swimmer's nose, where it can then travel to the brain and cause a devastating infection like the one Kali had.
"She was fearful of water because that's how she got sick, and so to get over that fear, they took her swimming in the therapeutic pool," one of Kali's doctors, Dr. Esther Tompkins, said. "After she got over her initial hesitancy, she even started going underwater."