Zachary Reyna, the 12-year-old boy infected by a brain-eating parasite, had died on Saturday at Miami Children's Hospital, announced his family through a post on the boy's Facebook page.
"The battle is over for Zac but he won the war," the afternoon post on the boy's condition stated.
Another post stated that the doctors used a ventilator to spare his other viable organs for donation, adding that although the boy had already passed away, he is bound to save other people's lives through his donation.
An experimental drug was used to treat the brain-eating parasite, which the doctors identified as Naegleria fowleri.
According to earlier reports, Zachary Reyna had contracted the rare parasite while he was spending some time kneeboarding with his friends in a water-filled ditch just across their house.
After the incident his family claimed that he fell ill and was admitted right away to the hospital to undergo brain surgery. His attending doctors said that they detected the free-living parasite Naegleria fowleri in his brain, and was diagnosed with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis.
The Florida Department of Health has now sent some warnings to the public, saying that swimmers must not bathe in hot springs and warm freshwater since these are the common thriving habitats of the said amoeba.
Health experts have stated in their warning that the parasite enters the body through the nasal cavity and passes through the sinuses towards the brain's meninges, where it thrives for a couple of weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had explained the common symptoms of the disease the brain-eating amoeba cases, which includes loss of balance, confusion, hallucinations, and seizures, among others. "After the start of symptoms, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within one to 12 days."
"This infection is one of the most severe infections that we know of," Arkansas Department of Health Doctor Dirk Haselow told CNN. "Ninety-nine percent of people who get it die."
Meanwhile, Kali Harding, the other 12-year-old who has contracted the deadly parasite in Arkansas, has reportedly recovered. She was given the same drug used in treating Zachary, and is now recorded as the third case to have withstood the deadly parasite within the last 50 years.
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