Kali Hardig, 12, left the hospital on Wednesday after nearly two months spent battling and then recovering from a rare brain-eating amoeba.
Kali first showed symptoms shortly after swimming in a sandy-bottom lake near her home in Arkansas.
"I coudn't get her fever down," Hardig's mother, Traci Hardig, told The Christian Post at the time. "She started vomiting. She'd say her head hurt really bad. She cried, and she would just look at me and her eyes would kind of roll."
Once in the hospital, doctors quickly put the girl in a coma in an effort to stabilize her condition, Fox News reported.
The prognosis grim, Kali's physicians proceeded to use an experimental breast cancer and anti-fungal drugs in addition to antibiotics to beat the organism into submission, according to USA Today.
The combination, as well as a dramatic drop in body temperature, are being cited as likely reasons for Hardig's survival, as is the speed at which her parents sought treatment.
"Her mom and dad got her here quickly, and the people who saw her in the emergency room recognized they needed to be more aggressive," Dr. Jerril Greene, pediatric critical care specialist and co-medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Arkansas Children's Hospital where Hardig stayed, told USA Today.
The rare form of meningitis is caused by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which thrives in warm, stagnant freshwater. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other symptoms include seizures, confusion, hallucinations and a stiff neck as the amoeba moves from the nasal cavity through which it enters into the brain. On average, those infected with the amoeba die within five days from the start of the symptoms.
To avoid contracting the disease, the CDC encourages individuals to hold their nose shut or keep their head above water while swimming in fresh water.