Despite all odds, a Florida teenager diagnosed with a brain-eating amoeba was treated at Florida Hospital in Orlando and survived.
A combination of rapid medical care and a pill distributed by an Orlando company saved 16-year-old Sebastian DeLeon's life.
DeLeon was swimming in a south Florida lake in late July. Days later he complained about a crippling headache while with his family in Orlando. He was at Florida Hospital within hours, where an astute lab technician found a brain-eating amoeba in a lumbar fluid sample.
"We are all detectives," Florida Hospital lab technician Sheila Black said. "We literally had to look at this and study for it awhile."
The amoeba, found in warm freshwater, has a 97 percent fatality rate.
DeLeon was put into a coma and his body was chilled to 32 degrees in order to freeze the amoeba. But it was Orlando company, Profounda, that learned of the amoeba and delivered medication that is believed to have been key in saving DeLeon's life.
"The idea I came up with was rather than just leave it in warehouse lab, let's get the drug out into the community," Profunda CEO Todd Maclaughlan said. "As many hospitals as we can, that way the drug will be available."
Profounda's pill, Impevido, is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it is not readily available in hospitals. Despite a six-month crusade by Profounda to stock the pills for free, hospitals across the country have not done so -- largely because the amoeba is cited as being too rare, even though patients can die in a matter of hours.
"We are talking to one hospital at a time, basically getting it out, targeting groups getting it out," Maclaughlan said.
Florida Hospital officials said they have become crusaders for Impevideo since treating DeLeon. The hospital now plans to keep the pill stocked and to promote it to other hospitals.
Out of 138 people that have been infected by an amoeba, only four survived, and three of them took Impevido.
The CDC keeps the medication in Atlanta and has to fly it out to hospitals.
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