As they grieve their son, the boy's parents said they were stunned to learn South Carolina, like most other U.S. states, has no law requiring public reporting of deaths or infections from the amoeba. The lake wasn't closed and no water testing was performed. If they hadn’t spoken up, they wonder if anyone would have even known what happened.

A 12-year-old boy has died from a brain-eating amoeba after swimming in a South Carolina lake over the July Fourth weekend.