A 29-year-old man dies of a parasite that feeds his brain after swimming in a wave pool

A 29-year-old New Jersey man died of a brain-eating parasite after swimming in a wave pool at a Texas hotel.

Fabrizio Stabile swam at BSR Cable Park in Waco, Texas, during a visit to the area, before returning home to New Jersey.

Then, on September 16th, Stabile was mowing the lawn when he had to stop because of a severe headache. He took medication and slept all night, but still suffered pain the next day and went back to sleep with more medication.

That afternoon, his mother tried to wake him up but Stabile was unable to get up or talk coherently, and he was rushed to the hospital, according to his GoFundMe page.

Doctors treated him for bacterial meningitis after he found that he had swelling of the brain and fever, but he did not respond to treatment and his condition worsened.

After four days of testing, they finally determined Thursday that Stabile had contracted the rare parasite Naegleria fowleri, but it was too late to help. He died the next day 21 September.

The cases of Naegleria fowleri are extremely rare, with only 34 infections reported in the United States between 2008 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And surviving is unlikely – of the 143 known cases in total, between 1962 and 2017, only 4 people survived, a mortality rate of 97%.

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BSR Cable Park closed temporarily on Friday so the CDC could test the area, reported the Associated Press.

Naegleria fowleri is most often found in warm waters, at 115 degrees or more. It occurs in fresh waters, such as lakes and rivers, or in poorly maintained pools.

Stabile's friends and family have created the Fabrizio Stabile Foundation for Naegleria Fowleri outreach, "to educate and educate as many people as possible about this rare and preventable infection," they wrote on the GoFundMe page, which raised $ 22,787.

"We intend to do this through an annual fundraiser in Fabrizio's memory in the hope that it will not affect another family," they said. "Please, help us keep Fabrizio's memory alive."