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Mom files $1 million lawsuit after brain-eating amoeba at Texas water park kills son

Kala Kachmar
Asbury Park Press

WACO, Texas - The mother of a 29-year-old Atlantic County surfer who died of a brain-eating amoeba in September after visiting a surf park in Texas has filed a $1 million wrongful death suit against the facility.

Fabrizio Stabile, of Ventnor, was pronounced brain dead 13 days after visiting the Parsons Barefoot Ski Ranch in Waco, according to a GoFundMe set up to fund a foundation to raise awareness of Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba that killed Stabile.

The man's mother, Rita Stabile, alleges in the lawsuit that the company could have prevented her son's death had they exercised "ordinary care in the operation of their water park," the Houston Chronicle reported.

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Fabrizio Stabile, 29, died of a brain-eating amoeba after visiting a Texas surf park. His family and friends created a Go Fund Me to establish a foundation in his honor.

Test results from the water park found that Stabile's exposure to the amoeba "likely" occurred at the park, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Federal and local Texas health officials collected water samples six days after Stabile's death on Sept. 21.

Results showed that the water was cloudy, contained organisms associated with fecal matter and lacked enough chlorine to disinfect the water — all of which create an environment conducive for the brain-eating amoeba's growth, according to the Chronicle. 

The lawsuit claims the park's "blue-green dyed waves masked a pathogen soup in which Naegleria fowleri amoeba — the 'brain-eating amoeba' — could thrive," the Chronicle reported.

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A computer-generated image of the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri.

Although the parasite wasn't found in the surf portion of the park where Stabile was, conditions were conducive to its growth. The parasite typically infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose, not when swallowed, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The amoeba has been diagnosed only 143 times since 1962, with only four survivors, according to the CDC. More than half of the infections occurred in Florida and Texas, and the rest in other Southern states.

The Fabrizio Stabile Foundation for Naegleria Fowleri Awareness was established this year by his family and friends as a nonprofit organization.

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Follow Kala Kachmar on Twitter: @NewsQuip

 

 

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