PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (WFLA) – It’s been a little over a year since Florida teen Caleb Zieglbaur got infected with a brain-eating amoeba after taking a trip to Port Charlotte Beach with his family.

Caleb, who is now 14 years old, beat the brain-eating amoeba that the CDC says is roughly 97% percent fatal, and although the teen has come this far, he says he still has “a lot of progress.”

“I have come so far and yet I have a lot of progress,” Caleb said to his mom during a sit-down interview with WBBH.

His mom, Jesse Ziegelbaur, told WBBH that she thinks the morality rate is even higher, saying, “there are problems with the reporting process.” She told the outlet she believes the true morality rate is near 99%.

“It’s been one year since you were sick. We didn’t even know this time last year, we didn’t even know it was happening,” Ziegelbaur told WBBH, “I had no idea what our life was going to turn into.”

Only on July 1, 2022, Caleb and his family took a trip to the beach, and six days later, the outlet said he began to get headaches and a fever and on July 9, he was rushed to a children’s hospital.

According to WBBH, the Zieglbaurs battled the amoeba for eight months, going from hospital room to hospital room, where Caleb was “minimally conscious at times.”

Zieglbaur recalled the time the neurologist told them they had four days left with Caleb, but even then the family didn’t give up.

Caleb’s mom even said that he saw that neurologist last week and joked with him about how “this is the longest four days of my life.”

“He saw that doctor last week and he said I just want to tell you this is the longest four days of my life,” Zieglabur said.

Although Caleb beat the infectious amoeba, the road to recovery is constant. WBBH reported that he came back from intensive rehab in March. He can stand, laugh and somewhat speak. Caleb told WBBH that he can “talk with [his] eyebrow.”

Zieglbaur said that even though the cause of Naegleria fowleri is highly fatal, it’s 100% preventable. After Caleb’s diagnosis, the family said they bought a box of nose plugs to hand out at the Freedom Swim across Charlotte Harbor Tuesday.

As for what lies ahead of 14-year-old Caleb, he told WBBH that he has a plan for his future – to become an epidemiologist.

“I was going to find the cure for Covid, but now I am going to find the vaccine for Naegleria fowleri,” Caleb told the outlet with a smile.