Nails That Failed

The killer left nothing visible on the teenagers bodynothing. The attack was silent and unsuspecting. No fingerprints, no DNA, not a clue was left at the scene or on the boys body. Three teenagers entered an environment wherein dwelled a deadly killer. They left it laughing and full of life. Two weeks later, one was dead. His body bore no marks, only symptoms of a sickness progressively worsening each day. Physicians relentlessly sought identifying cause of symptoms. Each drug known to counter what the laboratory results reflected proved to be ineffective. Finally, the teenager lapsed into a coma, then cardiac arrest. Death had dropped its darkened drape. Death came ten days after Terrys first symptoma stiff neck upon awakening, and only four days after the threesome cheerfully walked away from where the killer cleverly concealed itselfa perfect place for enticing the boys to enter. It struck its unsuspecting blow at a precise momentone when the victims involuntary action, between man and matter, favored the killer. The sudden, silent strike was lethalenough to create Terrys lingering death. The irresistible setting the boys entered was on an unusually warm February day in Florida. Indisputable identification of the killer came from a medical pathologist. His words were, the young man died of Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM). Its rather uncommon, but its a fatal infection of the brain. I believe Terry inhaled a deadly parasitic pathogen while in the lakea single-celled organism known as Naegleria fowleri. Water containing this amoeba, if inhaled deeply into the nasal passageways, causes an inevitable death. The doctor didnt describe the autopsy sight of the boys brain. Had he done so, he would have described a brain resembling moth-eaten wool, more than human brain tissue. Doctors treated a similar fatality the previous Decembereighteen-year-old standout athlete, Earl Baley, of Orlando. But physicians declined public disclosure of an enigma concerning the PAM deaths. But, after the third death, they reached a reasonable conclusionone as unreasonable as imagination could remove them from intellect. Finally, a female Immunologist and Microbiologist publicly explained the enigma of her peers. Its apparent we have reached a consensus of opinion. Today, Im compelled to tell you two elements are missing from the proposition that proposes accidental death through Naegleria fowleri: One is the fatalities were at a time of year when our waters are not consistently seventy two degrees or higher, in order for Naegleria to thrive; the other is, the only other sensible conclusion isperhaps something more evil and sinister.