South Florida teenager who survived brain-eating amoeba to be featured in health documentary
South Florida Sun SentinelJul 20, 2018
What
His story of survival will be featured in the season premiere of the HLN documentary series "Something's Killing Me with BD Wong" 8 p.m on Sunday.
The six-episode series produced by
DeLeon's segment in the episode "Tiny Monsters" will focus on how he, at the age of 16, was infected with the water-born, brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri in 2016 after swimming in a body of water on a private property in
Two days later, during a vacation with his family in
"I remember that he would tell me 'Mom, can you please take my brain out because I feel like it's going to explode,'" she recalls in the documentary.
Doctors initially thought he had viral meningitis, but after conducting a spinal tap, they learned it was the brain-eating amoeba which travels through the nose and roots itself into brain cells.
At the time, his doctors described his survival as a miracle and his case was one of more than 138 cases of the amoeba that kills 97% of those who are infected with it.
DeLeon shared his story two years ago during the second annual Amoeba Summit at
The summit was launched by Steve and
"If it happens to you, it stays with you for the rest of your life," DeLeon says in the documentary.
"There's not a day I don't think about it."
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