NewsMV
Lillian Smart, 8, died Saturday at a Ruston, Louisiana hospital from an infection her family linked to Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba.
The Louisiana Department of Health announced Wednesday that a state resident had been hospitalized after what officials believe was an exposure at Lake Claiborne shortly before the patient became ill.
The department has not publicly named Lillian as that patient. She died one day after her eighth birthday.
In a Facebook statement posted Sunday, her family described the brain damage as too severe for her body to recover from. "Everyone did everything they could to keep her here," the family wrote.
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