Newlywed Suffers Odd Symptoms As A Result From Birth Control Withdrawal Than Dies In ER Due To Brain-Eating Bug

Koral Reef Meister-Pier, 20, from  Temecula, California, was a happy, bubbly young woman who had just married her high school sweetheart, Corey Pier before her life was cut short due to an unexpected turn of events.

Shortly after the wedding, she began to experience odd symptoms such as headaches, neck pain, fatigue, nausea, blurred vision, mood swings and sensitivity to heat and light. The newlywed, once energetic and bubbly, was now lethargic and emotional.

“Her headaches and sensitivity to light were so bad that her husband had to constantly keep her in a dark room,” said her mother, Sybil Meister. “… she started having twitching on the left-side of her body.”

Koral refused to see her doctor and didn’t want to worry her family, so she tried to conceal her symptoms as much as possible. Eventually, she had to be taken to ER where doctors thought the symptoms were just a result of birth control withdrawal, and she was discharged from the hospital.

“But on September 29, we had to take her back to the ER, and she never came out,” said Meister. It was at the Temecula Valley Hospital that doctors discovered a huge mass in her brain, dead tissue, and inflammation. They realized that Koral had contracted a brain-killing amoeba known as Balamuthia.

Balamuthia amoeba is very very rare and typically found in dust and soil, but can also appear in water. Koral’s family believe she might have got it during a boating trip to Lake Havasu.

“They told us there is no real treatment for this, said her husband, Corey. “I broke down and I was freaking out. I didn’t want to tell her. She wouldn’t remember anyway. She was there, but she wasn’t there. It was just eating away her brain,” Pier said.

“It’s so rare, it’s nothing we can protect against or be hugely concerned about in our daily lives, said Dr. Sharon Reed, who worked on the case. However, Koral’s devastated family are trying to spread awareness and inform people of this deadly brain-eating bug through the Facebook page Team Koral Reef Amoeba Awareness.

h/t: liftable