Texas girl, 10 years old, dies after contracting an amoeba infection while she is swimming | WBNS-10TV Columbus, Ohio

FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA) – The 10-year-old Lily Mae Avant family from central Texas, who has contracted a devastating amoeba for the brain, said the girl had died early Monday morning.

She "fought the good fight," said her aunt, Loni Yadon, and her cousin, Wendy Scott. "We are firm in our faith and the lives it has touched."

The Avant family said the girl had started feeling sick on Sunday, Sept. 8, but the doctors thought she was infected with a virus.

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On Tuesday, she was flown to the Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, where it was confirmed that she had contracted a devastating amoeba for the brain.

Her family does not know exactly where and when she got it but she said that she had been swimming on Labor Day weekend in the Brazos River, near her home in Valley Mills, as she and her family had always done it.

Brain-eating amoebae are common, but infections are not, said the state health department. They are found in soft, warm water and enter through the nose. You can not contract an amoeba by swallowing water.