Williams contracted the infection from a splash patch that officials later found had been improperly tested and maintained.
At a press conference, Williams’s parents’ lawyers said the child’s death could have been avoided.
Family lawyer Brian Hargrove said $ 250,000 is the maximum financial recovery allowed in a city under Texas tort law, according to KTVT.
Arlington said in a statement that the settlement would include “a significant investment in the installation of health and safety equipment and other improvements to public swimming pools and launchers”. The city will distribute a new policy handbook, the Bakari Williams Protocol, that will guide staff in water treatment, according to Hargrove and the city. “We intend to share this information with other bodies in the aquatic signaling industry so that they can learn from our difficult lessons,” the city said. The new technology will automatically close any spray patches where water measurements are not within acceptable limits and the addition of QR codes will allow visitors to see real-time information on water quality, the KTVT statement said. . “We want you to know that Bakari was a sweet, handsome and innocent child who did not deserve to die the way he deserved. For us, this case is about raising public awareness,” Williams’s mother Kayla Mitchell told a news conference. , according to the subsidiary. “We want to make sure that nothing like this happens again. We want to make sure that what happened to our son, what happened to our family, will not happen to anyone else,” Mitchell said. Naegleria fowleri is commonly found in soil and freshwater, such as lakes, rivers, and hot springs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It can also be found in poorly maintained or non-chlorinated pools. The body infects humans when water containing the amoeba enters the body through the nose, according to the CDC. The amoeba Naegleria fowleri then travels from the nose to the brain, where it destroys brain tissue, says the CDC.

Search for the source of infection

City and county officials in Tarrant County were briefed by the hospital Sept. 5 about the child’s condition, according to a joint press release issued that month. The county health department launched an investigation and identified two possible sources for the amoeba exposure – the Tarrant County family home and the Don Misenhimer Park pad in Arlington. The city immediately shut down this splash pad, the news bulletin says, and due to great care shut down the other three public pads for the rest of the year. On September 24, the CDC, according to the news bulletin, found that the child was likely to be exposed to the body in the launch pad after tests confirmed the presence of active Naegleria fowleri amoebae in water samples from the park. “I’m heartbroken. I’m a father of four, a grandfather of five from 2 to 7 years old. I can not imagine burying a child or grandchild like that,” Arlington Mayor Jim Ross told KTVT at the time.

Low chlorine levels are probably a factor

The city of Arlington has conducted research into the maintenance, equipment and water testing procedures of the spray pad. Officials have identified water quality test data as needed. “We have identified gaps in our daily inspection schedule,” Deputy City Manager Lemuel Randolph said in a 2021 press release. “until we ensure that our systems work as they should and we have confirmed a maintenance protocol according to our city, county and county. state standards.” Records from two of the spray patches, including one in Don Misenhimer Park, showed that officials did not record or in some cases did not conduct the required water quality tests before the facility opened each day, according to the news bulletin. The test includes a test for chlorine, which is used as a disinfectant. A review of the logs showed that water chlorination measurements were not documented two of the three days the child visited the park in late August and early September, the news bulletin reported. “The documents show that the chlorination levels two days before the last visit of the child were within acceptable limits,” the statement said. “However, the next documented measurement, which took place the day after the child’s visit, shows that the chlorination level had fallen below the minimum requirement and that additional chlorine was added to the water system.” CNN’s Amanda Jackson, Amir Vera and Lauren M. Johnson contributed to this report.