FL Teen Battling Brain-Eating Amoeba Heads To Chicago Rehab Facility

FORT MYERS, FL — Nearly two months after being hospitalized with a rare brain-eating amoeba, a Florida teen is heading to a Chicago rehab facility for further treatment.

Caleb Ziegelbauer, 13, started complaining about a headache about five days after swimming in brackish waters following a July 1 family trip to Port Charlotte Beach. A day later, he had a fever and by July 9, he was disoriented, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser for his family.

His parents brought him to Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, where he was diagnosed with meningitis and placed in the pediatric intensive care unit. Doctors say the amoeba Naegleria fowleri is responsible for his illness and he’s remained hospitalized since then, according to the GoFundMe page.

Caleb was transferred to Chicago’s Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Wednesday afternoon, flying out of Tampa via Jet ICU, which provided the flight and transport at no cost to his family, according to a news release.

• Also Read: FL Teen Battling Brain-Eating Amoeba After SWFL Beach Trip

In a video of his parents, shared by WTSP and recorded right before the flight took off, Caleb’s mother said that her son “is made of pure grit and determination.”

She said the family had several mantras during the two-month battle for his life.

“In the early days, we just repeated …'You fight the inside; we fight the outside,’” she said.

Later, came affirmations to keep him going.

“Caleb is brave. Caleb is strong. Caleb is a fighter. Caleb is young. Caleb is healthy. Caleb has a brain capable of healing,” she said.

He’s been “defying the odds” since he was first hospitalized, according to the family’s GoFundMe.

The single-celled organism Naegleria fowleri lives in soil and warm fresh water, like lakes, rivers and hot springs, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It’s often referred to as a “brain-eating amoeba” because it can cause a brain infection when water containing the amoeba goes up the nose.

Only three people each year are infected with Naegleria fowleri and most people die from it, according to the CDC.

While Caleb was briefly sedated and intubated, he eventually was able to breathe on his own, a GoFundMe update said. In the weeks that followed, he was able to move around some — sitting up in a recliner, hanging in a hammock and making a lateral transfer to a cardiac chair, which allowed him to briefly leave his hospital room.

“And now we do a next best thing,” his mother said. “We won’t dwell on the last two months. We continue to move forward. We continue to heal, and we couldn’t do it without the help of our community, our family, all of you.”

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