article: A California mother has opened up about the horrific experience of watching her once-vibrant daughter fade away and die from a little understood brain-eating amoeba. Sybil Meister firmly believes her daughter Koral Reef picked up the deadly and mysterious Balamuthia mandrillaris infection during a family trip to Lake Havasu in May 2013. Reef married her high school sweetheart that July and began to show worsening symptoms like headache, fatigue and stiff neck a couple of months later. By October 2014, Reef would be dead. She was 20-years-old. Tragic: Koral Reef, left, was a blushing bride in July 2013 as she wed her high school sweetheart. The 20-year-old Temecula, California woman would be dead just over a year later from a rare, deadly and incurable brain-eating amoeba infection . Now her mother is on a mission to educate the world about the dangers of Balamuthia mandrillaris, for which there is no proven treatment. 'They said, ''Oh, she's having withdrawal from her birth control; It's a migraine.'' They gave her medicine and sent her home and then she progressively got worse,' Meister recalled in an interview with KNTV. That was in 2013 and the family couldn't possibly have foreseen the horrors ahead. After all, Koral had just married her high school sweetheart Corey Pier. In fact, the attractive young couple were barely even out of high school when the trouble began. 'She started with the headaches, the stiff neck, the sensitivity to light and heat was bad,' Meister said. According to the Press Enterprise, the symptoms steadily worsened. Over the course of months, once-healthy Koral began to regularly experience blurred vision, lethargy and mood changes. Terrible decline: Reef's family believes she picked up the rare Balamuthia mandrillaris infection on a May 2013 trip to Lake Havasu . Balamuthia infection is very rare. The Balamuthia amoebas can infect the skin, sinuses, brain and other organs of the body. Therefore, Balamuthia infection can cause a wide range of symptoms. Disease can begin with a skin wound on the face, trunk, or limbs and can then progress to the brain where it cause a disease called Granulomatous Amebic Encephalitis. Diagnosis of Balamuthia GAE can be difficult, but some early symptoms may include: . • Headaches . • Stiff neck or head and neck pain with neck movement . • Sensitivity to light . • Nausea . • Vomiting . • Lethargy (tiredness) • Low-grade fever . Other signs of Balamuthia GAE may include: . • Behavioral changes . • Seizures . • Weight loss . • Partial paralysis . • Speech difficulties . • Difficulty walking . Source: CDC . 'Balamuthia's mortality rate is very, very high. Only 13 percent of patients survive without any type of treatment,' Dr. Navaz Karanjia, Director of Neurocritical Care at UC San Diego. Some 200 cases have been identified worldwide since 1993. Most cases are reported among the young, old or otherwise immunocompromised. California saw 12 cases between 1990 and 2011. Nine of those cases were fatal. Deadly: At left, the Balamuthia mandrillaris amoeba is seen in its cystic phase. At right, the deadly brain-eating organism is seen in its active stage . A scan of her brain in September revealed what doctors first thought might be cancer. A test revealed it was Balamuthia mandrillaris. 'They told us there is no real treatment for this,' said Pier. '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 at her brain.' Within weeks, half her body was paralyzed. Then she stopped responding to her family. Doctors tried administering the investigational drug Miltefosine, but it was too late. Reef died October 20. Meister has now embarked on a campaign to teach others about the water- and soil-borne infection. 'We're reaching out to people trying to raise awareness because I don't think people understand how serious it can be. It's deadly,' she told KNTV. She's created Team Koral Reef GoFundMe and Facebook pages to help the cause. Reef would not be the first person to die from an amoebic infection after swimming in Lake Havasu, but she would be the first to die form this particular form of the single-cell organism, which authorities say has not been documented in the Arizona lake. Lake Havasu? Reef's family firmly believes she picked up the amoeba in Lake Havasu (pictured) in May 2013. The Arizona lake is known to harbor a different deadly amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, but not the type found in Reef's brain . Horrific: Reef married her high school sweetheart in July 2013 and began to show worsening symptoms like headache, fatigue and stiff neck a couple of months later. By October 2014, Reef would be dead. She was 20-years-old . 'They told us there is no real treatment for this,' recalled Reef's young widower. '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 at her brain' Fourteen-year-old Aaron Evans died from an infection caused by Naegleria fowleri that his family believed he picked up from the lake. Naegleria fowleri is known to live in the lake and other warm fresh waterways. In 2007, officials at Lake Havasu responded by posting signs around the waterway warning of the potential--albeit rare--danger. Meister says the signs aren't enough. 'That sign makes the amoeba out to be some cute little fish that may cause a rash,' Meister told PE.com. 'That doesn't scream danger. That screams ''Have fun but be careful because there may be some amoeba in the lake that may be dangerous.'' It should read ''Swim at your own risk.''' SPeaking out: Reef's mother Sybil Meister, left, now wants to educate the world on the little-known danger of Balamuthia mandrillaris . Meister says the signs posted around Lake Havasu warning of the dangers of amoebas aren't enough. 'That sign makes the amoeba out to be some cute little fish that may cause a rash,' Meister said .
highlights: Koral Reef, 20, died last year after a horrifying and protracted battle against the little-understood parasite Balamuthia mandrillaris .
  Reef was wed to her high school sweetheart in July 2013 just months before she began showing symptoms like headache, fatigue and stiff neck .
  Reef's mother Sybil Meister believes Reef picked up the amoeba on a trip to Lake Havasu in May 2013 -- she was dead by October 2014 .
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