16-year-old survives rare brain-eating amoeba and his parents are crediting his survival to God’s intervention.

When this Florida family went on a vacation on August 7, they didn’t expect that the family trip would turn into their worst nightmare. Sebastian DeLeon, a 16-year-old boy contracted a rare disease while swimming at a beach in Orlando, Florida. The disease is so rare that only about 35 cases have been registered in the U.S. in the past decade. As for rate of survival, it is less than 3 percent.

This is what makes the case of Sebastian so special, the fact that he survived despite the doctors giving up hope. For his parents, this was not short of a miracle by God. The doctor who was in charge of the sixteen-year-old patient had even told his parents to say their goodbyes to him. However, now, he is all tears when he talks about his miraculous survivor.

The boy contracted this disease by inhaling the lethal brain-eating amoeba while swimming. Within no time, the boy complained about a terrible headache that got worse each minute. The pain was so intense that he soon felt it all over his body so that he would scream in agony even when touched. He was then rushed to the Florida Hospital for Children where Dr. Humberto Liriano took charge of him. When he realized what it was that infected the boy, the doctor was shocked. The infection, he knew, was lethal and chances of survival were very slim. He says that he told the family to tell their son everything they wanted to tell him, for from the time he had put him to sleep too the time he would have to take out the tube, he couldn’t say when or whether the boy would wake up.

The boy was brought back from the clutches of death by an experimental drug that was manufactured in a company that happened to be based in Orlando. Fortunately, the drug was procured within 12 minutes of the boy getting diagnosed. The drug called miltefosine is not available in most hospitals due to the rarity of the disease.

The boy miraculously woke up after being on coma-inducing drugs for the past few days. His recovery amazed Dr. Liriano, who called this a “once in a lifetime” case, the lessons of which he is determined to carry with him for the rest of his life.

Sebastian has now almost fully recovered and is ready to get discharged. His parents have credited this recovery to God, who “guided the doctors and nurses” in curing their son.

Florida teen survives brain-eating amoeba infection https://t.co/yAV8vLKNRE Excellent work by ER doc and laboratory personnel!! Great story — David J. Levens, MD (@djlevens) August 24, 2016

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