Instead of filling the special accessory with saline or sterile water
An elderly woman from Seattle died from amoebae she inhaled by cleaning her nose with tap water, according to new research.
The 69-year-old woman underwent brain surgery last January as a computed tomography scan showed the presence of a tumor. However, during the operation, the doctors came in front of a creepy spectacle, as they saw a swarm of deadly amoebae eating her brain.
"When I operated on the woman, a part of her brain, the size of a golf ball, was in her blood. There were these amoebas everywhere that ate her brain cells. "We had no idea what exactly was going on, but when we got the tissue we could see it was an amoeba," said Swedish Medical Center neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Cobbs.
The unfortunate woman, whose details were not published, died a month after the surgery. The cause of death, according to the study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, was granulomatous amoebic encephalitis.
According to the research, the woman inhaled the single-celled organisms from the nose through a system she used a year ago to rinse the nasal cavity.
Instead of filling the special part with saline or sterile water, as is recommended in these cases, he used tap water which was passed through a special water filter that he had bought from a store. The researchers, however, could not control the tap water to confirm that the Balamuthia mandrillaris amoebae were there.
According to Liz Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health's Department of Environmental Public Health, amoebae can be found in freshwater sources around Budget Sound, but not in the water supply to the city.
Humans, experts say, cannot be infected by simply drinking water containing amoebae.
This is the second case in Seattle and the first death caused by such an infection in the state of Washington.
In October, a man was killed by another type of amoeba, which New Jersey medical authorities believe he got stuck while surfing in an enclosed water park.