A North Carolina teenager has died after contracting a rare brain-eating amoeba, state health officials confirmed.
Moises Ponce Mendoza, whose age has not been publicly released, died on Monday from an infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, according to his family and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The single-celled organism, commonly found in warm freshwater, can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis when it enters through the nose and reaches the brain.
“We extend our condolences to the family, friends and community impacted by this loss,” the NCDHHS said in a statement. The department had announced in a Thursday press release that Mendoza was “critically ill and receiving medical care” before his condition proved fatal.
Monica Mendoza, the teen’s mother, had been documenting her son’s rapid decline in a GoFundMe fundraiser launched last week. She described him then as a “young man full of life currently fighting for his life in the hospital – in a coma.” The fundraiser sought contributions for mounting medical expenses as doctors worked to save him.
“It all started with severe headaches. I never imagined that something like this could be so serious,” Monica wrote in the translated fundraiser statement. She explained that she initially brought her son to a hospital in Burlington, where staff told her he could return home.
Mendoza’s condition deteriorated with devastating speed. By Saturday morning, he had to be rushed to the University of North Carolina hospital’s emergency room, where physicians finally identified the extremely rare infection.
“From that moment on, our lives changed completely. Moises is in a coma; the doctors are doing everything possible to fight this illness and give him a chance to pull through,” his mother wrote at the time. The teen did not survive the weekend.
The NCDHHS said the source of Mendoza’s exposure remains under investigation. Infections with Naegleria fowleri typically occur after swimming in lakes, rivers, or other freshwater bodies during summer months when water levels drop and temperatures climb. The organism earns its grim nickname because it infects the brain and destroys tissue. Symptoms begin with severe headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting, then advance to stiff neck, seizures, and coma. Death usually follows within five days.
Fewer than 10 people in the United States develop primary amebic meningoencephalitis annually. The rarity of the condition means diagnosis often comes too late for effective intervention.
Mendoza’s death occurred just over a week after Lillian Smart, 8, died from a suspected brain-eating amoeba infection following a swim in a northern Louisiana lake. The back-to-back fatalities highlight the persistent though uncommon danger posed by warm freshwater recreation during peak summer heat.
The NCDHHS did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for additional comment on Mendoza’s case.