Texas Child Dies From Brain Eating Amoeba Caught at Splash Park

A child that was hospitalized in Tarrant County Texas with primary amebic meningoencephalitis, also known as "brain eating amoeba" has died.

After an investigation by local health officials and the CDC, it was determined the child likely caught the amoeba in an Arlington Texas park splash pad.

Water samples were taken from the park, and were found to have the amoeba present in the samples on September 24th, 2021.

The splash pad in the park was closed on September 5th after it was suspected to be the cause of the child's ailments, and all other public splash pads in the Arlington area were closed for the remainder of the summer.

All city splash pads are said to have passed all inspections at the beginning of the summer season. But, there have been testing inconsistencies reported for the particular park that caused the infection. That includes skipped readings on two of the three days the child visited the park.

There have been no other reports of illness, according to officials.