Kali Hardig, brain-eating amoeba survivor, to begin school next week Only two patients had been known to survive in the last half-century. "I've been in the hospital a long time," she says Amoeba causes brain infection, nearly always fatal, according to the CDC Parasite generally found in people who swim in warm fresh water (CNN) -- By nearly all accounts, 12-year-old Kali Hardig should not be alive. During a swim at a water park in July, she contracted parasitic meningitis, a rare infection caused by brain-eating amoebas that has a survival rate less than 1%. But Kali is a fighter and, against all odds, she made it. Wednesday, after nearly seven weeks, she finally went home. She can talk, she can take a few steps on her own, and she's been undergoing rehab. On Monday morning, she'll reach another milestone: she'll head back to school part-time. She'll be in class in the morning, and in physical and speech therapy in the afternoons. "I've been in the hospital a long time," she told CNN affiliate KARK earlier this week. A long time. Uncharted territory Soon after entering the Arkansas Children's Hospital earlier this summer, Kali was in critical condition; she was unresponsive and unable to breathe without the assistance of a breathing tube. Dr. Sanjiv Pasala, one of Kali's attending physicians, said doctors immediately started treating her with an anti-fungal medicine, antibiotics and a new experimental anti-amoeba drug doctors got directly from the CDC. Pasala said that while other cases have not met with such favorable results, what may have made a real difference is that Kali's mother got her to the hospital so quickly. I feel blessed. I feel just overwhelmed. She's doing wonderful," her mother told the affiliate this week. Death within one to 12 days Naegleria fowleri is found in hot springs and warm fresh water, most often in the southeastern United States. Most of the cases were in the Southeast. One of the most severe infections Another case of the same infection, also called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, was reported in 2010 and was possibly linked to Willow Springs. Dr. Dirk Haselow of the Arkansas Department of Health told CNN affiliate WMC that Kali's case was "one of the most severe infections that we know of." "Ninety-nine percent of people who get it die," Haselow said. But not Kali. She wasn't about to give up that easily. CNN's William Hudson, Jacque Wilson, Jen Christiansen, John Bonifield, Caleb Hellerman, Jennifer Bixler and Leslie Holland contributed to this story.