Man settles with rafting centre over daughter’s amoeba death

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The father of an Ohio woman who died after being exposed to a rare brain-eating amoeba at a North Carolina whitewater rafting centre has settled a wrongful-death complaint.

The Columbus Dispatch reports a federal lawsuit in Lauren Seitz’s death was settled Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The 18-year-old Seitz, of Westerville, died 11 days after being thrown overboard and going underwater at the U.S. National Whitewater Center during a 2016 church trip. The lawsuit was originally filed in Columbus and was subsequently transferred to U.S. District Court in Charlotte.

The Charlotte Observer reports the centre denied responsibility for Seitz’s death but then closed the rafting feature for cleaning after a federal epidemiologist concluded its filtration and disinfection systems were inadequate.

A spokesman for the centre declined to comment.

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com