California Boy Develops Rare Brain Eating Illness That Kills a Third of Patients

A file photo of an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap, used to study brain activity. Oli Scarff/Getty Images

A California boy who developed a rare brain-eating illness that proves fatal for about a third of patients is expected to survive.

Andre Carson, 4, was rushed to the hospital after his mother Kamareia Parrish, 29, found him unresponsive and barely breathing just hours after he was diagnosed with a common cold.