Girl Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba

A South Carolina girl has died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba while swimming in a river.

Hannah Collins, 11, was pronounced dead Friday, just three days after health authorities said a Naegleria fowleri infection — the second in the Carolinas this year — had been confirmed.

Officials didn't identify Hannah, but said they believed the patient had been exposed to the single-celled organism while swimming in the Edisto River in Charleston County on July 24.

Hannah's father had taken his family to the river for a day of swimming, where Hannah repeatedly jumped into the river from a rope swing.

Present in warm, fresh water, the amoeba can cause the unusually fatal amebic meningoencephalitis when it enters the body through the nose.

The father, Jeff Collins, was also tragically unable to be at Hannah's side in her final days after he said he was arrested and held behind bars for unpaid child support.

However, Collins was taken by jail personnel to the hospital on Thursday. She died the next night.