Two-year-old boy dies from brain-eating bug in Nevada after playing in hot springs water

A toddler has died after contracting a deadly brain-eating amoeba while swimming in Nevada.

His mother, Briana Bundy, announced the two-year-old’s death in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

She wrote: ‘Woodrow Turner Bundy returned victoriously to our father in heaven at 2:56 am. 

‘He is my hero and I will forever be grateful to God for giving me the goodest (sic) baby boy on earth, and I am grateful to know I will have that boy in heaven someday.’

Woodrow passed away on July 19 from the infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, which is fatal in almost all cases. Only a handful of Americans have ever survived it.

The mother of Woodrow Bundy, Briana, announced the two-year-old’s death in a heartbreaking Facebook post on Tuesday

The pathogen – which thrives in warm water – is believed to have got into his system while he played in the hot springs in Ash Springs.

Woodrow’s parents noticed something was not right when the boy began suffering ‘flu-like symptoms’ last week.

He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors first thought he had meningitis. 

They realized too late he actually had Naegleria fowleri, which has a 97 percent kill rate.

An amoeba is a tiny, single-celled animal that can be found in warm freshwater such as lakes and rivers. It cannot survive in salt water and is not contagious from person to person.

Generally, the amoeba enters through the nose and travels through the sinuses to the brain, where it triggers primary amebic meningoencephalitis – a rare and usually fatal brain infection.

It spreads up nerves to the brain, where it multiplies and destroys tissue and causes the brain to swell.

In the early stages, patients initially experience headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, but days and weeks later they can also face hallucinations and seizures.

Only five people out of the more than 150 who got the microscopic bug in the US between 1962 and 2023 survived.

In a Facebook post two days ago, Mrs Woodrow said the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention refused to give her child any more medication because he was ‘past the point of any survivor.’

She added: ‘He currently shows no brain activity but there are still a few things we are trying.’