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Emails reveal conversations on deadly amoeba at Whitewater Center

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Channel 9 obtained emails between Mecklenburg County leaders and the Whitewater Center in the weeks after an 18-year-old girl died from a brain-eating amoeba when she was exposed to water at the center.

The emails reveal a timeline leading up to Lauren Seitz' death.

The potential exposure occurred the second week in June.

An email from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta detailed Seitz reported going to the Whitewater Center, being capsized and staying under water for an extended period of time.

She started experiencing symptoms, including a headache, on June 1, and after her health declined, the drug to try to save her was shipped to her hospital on June 18.

She died the next day.

An email dated June 24 from the Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio revealed the Whitewater Center closed down under pressure from the state and county health departments.

"They will contact Jeff Wise (CEO/ President of Whitewater Center) and request that he voluntarily close the facility,” Diorio wrote in the email. “If not, they will order the facility to close temporarily."

"We will work with you and the CDC and other professionals to determine the best means of addressing water quality as we attempt to get rafting operations going this year and in the long term,” Wise wrote.