Georgia Honors Student Identified as Victim of Fatal Brain-Eating Amoeba

The victim who died after contracting a horrifying brain-eating amoeba in Georgia was revealed Tuesday to be a 17-year-old honors student. Last week, the Georgia Department of Public Health announced death, which it attributed to the rare Naegleria fowleri amoeba. Now, the teen girl’s parents are speaking out after tragically losing their daughter, Megan Ebenroth, to the rare infection. “I’m still in shock,” Christina Ebenroth, Megan’s mother, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “But I can’t keep silent about her. She was extraordinary.” Christina said that her daughter woke up with a bad headache days after swimming in a nearby freshwater lake, where she likely caught the amoeba. She took Megan to the emergency room and nurses administered her IV fluids and blood tests, but her condition continued to worsen. Megan was eventually intubated, and her mother said that doctors even had to open up her skull to reduce brain swelling. Christina said she didn’t even consider the possibility of the brain-eating amoeba until a day before her daughter’s death. The high school senior was a straight “A” student, according to her obituary, and had a passion for drama and the arts.