1:32Fourteen-year-old Hunter Boutain died Thursday at a hospital in Minneapolis, just days after being exposed to a deadly amoeba while swimming in a central Minnesota lake.
"Hunter's condition deteriorated throughout the night and he was declared brain dead this morning," said his uncle, Bryan, in a statement provided by the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital, where the teen had been treated. "Hunter died surrounded by his family."
It was the third confirmed Minnesota death since 2010 from a brain infection caused by exposure while swimming to Naegleria fowleri. All the victims were children.
The infection is considered extremely rare — fewer than 130 deaths have been confirmed nationally since 1962. But state health officials nonetheless encouraged people to take precautions such as keeping their heads above water when swimming or plugging their noses or using nose clips.
Boutain had been swimming earlier in the week at Lake Minnewaska, a popular recreation lake near Glenwood and Alexandria.
Mourners offered prayers and condolences on the family's CaringBridge website, while Boutain's brother, Lee, tried to articulate his pain on his Facebook page. "The Lord didn't want him to stay on earth," he wrote.
Boutain had completed eighth grade at Discovery Middle School in Alexandria, where he played in the orchestra and jazz band and helped produce an in-school TV news show. The school district called his death "heartbreaking" in a statement and said it is assembling a crisis response plan to "support the emotional needs of the family, and our students and staff as they come to terms with this tragedy."
Ten lakes tested
The rapid deterioration of a loved one infected with Naegleria fowleri — healthy and swimming only days earlier — is shocking to families, said Chad LaMeyer, creator of the Swim Above Water advocacy organization. LaMeyer's 11-year-old daughter, Hailee, died of a brain infection that appears to have been an unconfirmed case of Naegleria fowleri exposure in a lake in Stacy, Minn.
