08/21/2026
‼️ A 7-year-old girl is fighting for her life against a rare brain infection believed to have come from something millions of families do every summer: swimming in a lake.
Now her mother is begging people she may never meet to put one name on their lips today: Lillian.
“Storm heaven with prayers for our baby,” Rebecca Smart wrote as her daughter fights from a pediatric ICU in Shreveport, Louisiana.
This happened frighteningly fast.
Rebecca says Lillian started running a fever Thursday. By Saturday, she was still extremely sick and fatigued despite testing negative for COVID, flu and strep.
Then Lillian complained that she was seeing double.
Her mother noticed her pupils were no longer the same size and immediately took her to the hospital.
Doctors initially diagnosed bacterial meningitis after a spinal tap.
According to the Ruston Leader, doctors later determined Lillian was battling a Naegleria fowleri infection, which the newspaper reports was most likely acquired while she was swimming in Lake Claiborne.
Her condition became critical.
Rebecca shared a photo taken with her daughter only about five hours before Lillian began rapidly declining. Even while feeling so sick, this little girl was still trying to smile with her mom.
“I took this photo with my girl about five hours before things began to rapidly decline. Even when she was so sick she was doing her best to smile and take a fun pic.”
Now Rebecca and her husband Daniel are beside their little girl praying for doctors to control the pressure in her brain, stabilize her temperature and blood pressure, and stop the infection.
And they aren’t praying alone.
Back home in Ruston, an entire community is joining them. First Baptist Ruston opened its worship center for an all-day prayer vigil, inviting people to pray specifically for Lillian.
And there has been a glimmer of hope.
In the family’s latest update, Lillian had begun showing small movements in her arms and legs, while her pupils had gotten smaller.
Her family says her doctor considered those neurological responses encouraging, while cautioning that she remains critically ill and has a long road ahead.
“The sunrise brought hope. The bold prayers are being felt and small victories are being seen.”
Rebecca isn’t hiding how desperately she wants her daughter back.
“I am begging you to pray for my child.”
So today, I’m asking this page to help Ruston do exactly that.
Her name is Lillian Smart.
She’s 7 years old, she’s critically ill, and her mom and dad desperately want to bring their little girl home.
Please pray for the pressure in Lillian’s brain to come down, for the medicine to work, for those encouraging movements to continue and for this little girl to keep fighting her way back to the parents who love her.
Rebecca asked people to “wake the lion in your lungs.”
Let’s make sure she can feel just how many people heard her. ❤️🙏
Love for Lillian
