Arlington settles lawsuit with family of 3-year-old who died of brain-eating amoeba
Arlington’s city council settled a lawsuit Tuesday with the family of a 3-year-old boy who died of a rare, brain-eating amoeba he contracted at a splash pad.
Bakari’s parents, Tariq Williams and Kayla Mitchell, of Forest Hill, filed the lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in damages. The council unanimously approved a $250,000 settlement during its Tuesday meeting, along with new health and safety equipment and more staff training.
The city named those training requirements the Bakari Williams protocol, according to an emailed statement from the city.
“The City of Arlington, as part of its settlement with the Williams child’s family, is making a significant investment in the installation of health and safety equipment and other improvements for our public pools and splash pads,” the city said in the statement.
The city is also implementing technology to automatically shut off splash pads where water readings are not acceptable and adding QR codes visitors can use to see real-time information about water quality.
“We plan to share this information with other agencies in the aquatics industry so they can learn from our hard lesson,” the city said in the emailed statement.
Bakari Williams died Sept. 11, 2021, of primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare and highly fatal central nervous system disease caused by the parasitic amoeba Naegleria fowleri. The city announced his death Sept. 27, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detected positive cases in water samples collected from the splash pad. The city also announced officials were reviewing park maintenance procedures after finding gaps in water quality documentation.
Mayor Jim Ross told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV he takes full responsibility during a Sept. 27, 2021, interview.
“Part of our job as city leaders is to protect our citizens, and we failed, we absolutely failed,” Ross said.
The infection came from the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad, one of four the city has open during the summer and early fall.
“If you’re going to offer this form of public amusement, you’ve got to do it right,” Stephen Stewart of Austin, one of the parents’ attorneys, said at an October 2021 news conference. “It’s too serious not to. it’s life and death.”