Brain-eating amoeba victim ‘enjoyed living life and doing her thing’

THOMSON, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A McDuffie County teenager’s life was taken far too soon, say those who knew her.

People who were close to 17-year-old Megan Ebenroth describe her as a ray of sunshine.

But infection with a brain-eating amoeba changed all that.

“I mean, it’s a shock, you know,” said her boyfriend, Seth Adams. “Nobody expected this to happen.”

She died just days after developing a rare naegleria fowleri infection while swimming in a freshwater lake, The amoeba thrives in warm water, like we’re seeing during this hot summer.

When people swim in infested water, the amoeba can go up the nostrils into the sinuses, then travel up the nerve into the brain.

It’s rare for people to develop an infection, but almost always fatal if they do.

“She fought hard,” Adams said.

He’ll always as social – someone who liked to talk to everybody.

“She made friends with everybody,” Adams said. “And just she wouldn’t go a day at school without you know, stopping to talk to 10-15 people in the hallway.”

He said she had an immense love for animals.

“Every opportunity I could get, we would go and we find some sort of animal to go hang out with,” he said.

Her classmates at Thomson High describe her as full of heart.

“Everybody said she was sweet. Nice, just smart. Just just a great person,” Jake Bennett said.

Adams’ friends stepped up and held a golf tournament and started a Gofundme drive to raise money for her family.

“And so we decided we take all the money we were gonna play for in our little tournament, and we just we’re gonna donate it to the family,” Adams said.

They raised over $5,000 to help cover some of the unexpected costs, like hospital and funeral expenses.

But nothing can replace Megan and the memories they made together

“This church camp that we went for a week during the summer … they had a slip-and-slide there,” he boyfriend said. “And she went up and down that slip-and-slide for maybe four or five hours straight. And the next day when she woke up, she was so beaten and bruised … she couldn’t hardly move. And one of the first thing she told me was, ‘Let’s go get on that slip-and-slide again’.”

And she left a big impact on those around her.

“She was just, you know, she was happy all the time,” Adams said. “And yeah, she was fun to be around. She just enjoyed living life and doing her thing.”

How to keep yourself safe

Prior to this confirmed case, there have been five other brain-eating amoeba cases reported in Georgia since 1962.

Though the risk of infection is low, officials say recreational water s should always assume there is a risk when they enter warm, fresh water.

If you choose to swim, you can reduce your risk of infection by limiting the amount of water that goes up the nose.

Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease CVntrol and Prevention recommend:

• Avoid jumping or diving into bodies of warm freshwater, especially during the summer.
• Hold your nose shut, use nose clips, or keep your head above water when in bodies of warm fresh water.
• Avoid putting your head underwater in hot springs and other untreated geothermal waters.
• Avoid digging in, or stirring up, the sediment in shallow, warm fresh water. The amoebae are more likely to live in sediment at the bottom of lakes, ponds, and rivers.

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.