08/22/2026
Ruston, Louisiana. It started with a fever last Thursday. By Saturday, Lillian Smart, 7, was still sick, testing negative for COVID, flu, and strep.
Then she said something that changed everything.
She was seeing double.
Her mother, Rebecca, noticed her pupils weren't the same size and rushed her to Willis-Knighton South.
Doctors initially diagnosed bacterial meningitis after a spinal tap. It wasn't that.
The Louisiana Department of Health confirmed what Lillian was actually facing: Naegleria fowleri, commonly called a brain-eating amoeba, most likely contracted while swimming in Lake Claiborne.
The infection is extremely rare. It's also nearly always fatal. Between 1937 and 2025, the entire United States recorded only 180 known cases. Louisiana had three.
Treatment was flown in immediately from Atlanta. Doctors began a specific regimen of eight different drugs, working to kill the amoeba before it could do more damage.
Rebecca shared a photo taken with her daughter just five hours before Lillian's condition began rapidly declining.
"I took this photo with my girl about five hours before things began to rapidly decline," Rebecca wrote. "Even when she was so sick she was doing her best to smile and take a fun pic."
Lillian's condition turned critical. Her parents, Rebecca and Daniel, have stayed beside her, praying for the pressure in her brain to come down and for her body to stabilize.
Ruston has not let them do it alone.
Temple Baptist Church opened its Gathering Space for concentrated prayer. Another group traveled to Shreveport to pray on the hospital grounds directly. A local gym, Imperium Weightlifting and Fitness, organized a fundraiser workout to help the family with expenses.
Then came a small sign the family had been praying for.
In their latest update, Lillian began showing small movements in her arms and legs. Her pupils had started returning to a more normal size.
Her doctor called the responses encouraging, while cautioning she remains critically ill with a long road ahead.
"The sunrise brought hope," the family wrote. "The bold prayers are being felt and small victories are being seen."
Health officials say the risk from freshwater swimming remains low, but recommend keeping your head above water, using nose clips, and avoiding stirring up sediment in shallow, warm water.
A fever that started on a Thursday turned into one of the rarest, most dangerous infections in medicine. Lillian is still fighting it four days later.
🔗 in comments for how to help Lillian's family.
