Lillian Smart Obituary, RUSTON, La. — Lillian Smart, an eight-year-old girl from Ruston, Louisiana, has lost her life following a battle with a rare and often deadly Naegleria fowleri infection, based on to her family. Lillian passed away Saturday night, just days after celebrating her eighth birthday.
Lillian’s loss came after her condition deteriorated rapidly in the days following the onset of her illness. She had initially developed a fever Thursday before experiencing double vision and other concerning symptoms by Saturday, prompting her parents, Daniel and Rebecca Smart, to seek emergency medical care.
Lillian was taken to Willis-Knighton South in Shreveport, where doctors initially diagnosed her with bacterial meningitis following a spinal tap. Medical professionals later determined that she had contracted Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic amoeba that can cause a severe and frequently fatal infection of the brain.
According to information provided by Louisiana health officials, Lillian was believed to have been exposed to the amoeba while swimming in Lake Claiborne. Naegleria fowleri is most commonly determined in warm freshwater environments such as lakes, rivers and canals. The infection occurs when contaminated water enters the body through the nose.
The amoeba is not discovered in saltwater and cannot infect people through properly maintained and chlorinated swimming pools. Lillian’s illness nevertheless progressed quickly, leaving her in critical condition in a pediatric intensive care unit as doctors worked to treat the infection.
In a Facebook post, Lillian’s parents described the severity of their daughter’s condition and expressed their heartbreak following her loss. The family said medical professionals did everything they could to save the young girl, but her condition became too severe for her to recover.
“Everyone did everything they could to keep her here,” her parents wrote, describing the devastating loss of their daughter and the difficulty of moving forward without her.
Lillian’s passing has left her loved ones and those who learned of her illness mourning the loss of a young girl whose life ended only days after her eighth birthday. Her loved ones’s grief follows a rapid and devastating illness, and thoughts and condolences are with Daniel and Rebecca Smart and their loved ones as they mourn Lillian and remember her life.
