The family of 12-year-old Jaysen Carr is speaking out about the child's recent passing from a brain-eating amoeba in an effort to raise public awareness of the often fatal brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy died from a brain-eating amoeba two weeks after a holiday weekend on a popular South Carolina lake. The brain-eating amoeba enters the body when water is forced up the nose, like when someone jumps or dives in the water.