In 2016, Kali Hardig – who was 12 years old at the time – was left fighting for her life after contracting parasitic meningitis, a rare infection caused by brain-eating amoebas.
It’s believed Kali developed the parasite after swimming at a waterpark and, despite having a less than one percent of survival, the young girl lived to tell the tale.
Kali’s mother hailed it a ‘miracle’ that the girl survived the ordeal when speaking to CNN at the time.
As to what helped the young girl survive the ordeal, her doctors were able to get what was then a new experimental anti-amoeba drug straight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Illustration of Naegleria fowleri protozoans infecting the brain (KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)
Since then, a horrifying simulation has been created and shared to YouTube to demonstrate what happened when a brain-eating parasite burrowed into a young girl after entering her body via her nose.
The now-viral video – which has been viewed over 2.5 million times in just 24 hours – doesn’t name Kali as the person it’s based on, but the situations are very similar.
In the clip, it explains that the parasite entered the girl’s brain after she jumped into a pool and it then ‘burrowed into her brain, destroying tissue and causing swelling’.
Symptoms the girl in the video had included a headache, high fever and projectile vomiting, which started the day after she’d been swimming.
Then she was placed in a coma for 22 days, but a rare drug saved her.
While she survived the ordeal, it left the girl having to relearn to walk, talk and swim again.
“She is a fighter for enduring all of it and surviving,” someone said. “Swimming again after rehabilitation only makes her a legend.”
“It’s crazy how she survived a 1% chance of survival. True respect,” added another.
Elsewhere people were quick to applaud the doctors who cared for her.
“Doctors seriously deserve a MAD award, for not giving up on her life, even when there’s a 1% chance of survival. Truly, respect,” gushed one person.
