Louisiana girl, 8, dies after contracting suspected brain-eating amoeba linked to lake swim

Lillian Smart, an 8-year-old girl who health officials believe contracted a brain-eating amoeba while swimming in a northern Louisiana lake, died Saturday at a Ruston hospital from an infection linked to the pathogen.

Lillian died one day after celebrating her eighth birthday.

"The injuries to her brain were too severe for her little body to recover from," the Smart family said in a statement posted Sunday morning on Facebook. "Everyone did everything they could to keep her here. We...