Today I have been asked, and I am incredibly honoured to give some personal accounts of those that have survived the ravages of
Meningitis.
The word
"Meningitis" itself strikes fear in our hearts, and its something I think we all hope and pray never happens to us.
These accounts have been understandably really painful to recall for those involved, but they are passionate about raising awareness of this disease.
First, I share the story of Rebecca Doyle of
Chez Bec, and the fight of her little girl, Isabella, and subsequently her son, Max.
In her own words, Rebecca recalls,
"April 24th 2010 started like any other Saturday in our house.
We had a family breakfast together, and it was the usual mad-house with our 18-month-old twins!"
"My husband, Andrew was in the garden putting our new barbeque together with our twin-son Max, whilst I took Isabella, our twin-daughter, out shopping. We had a lovely time together."
"It was a beautiful sunny day so after shopping, we went and joined the boys in the garden.
At around midday, Isabella started screaming in a high-pitched manner and was rubbing her head.
We assumed she’d bumped her head on the slide but after a few moments, she calmed down, and we thought nothing more of it.
We had lunch in the garden and I put Max and Isabella down for their nap."
"When I went to pick Isabella up out of her cot after her nap, her arms were limp and floppy and she had a temperature of 39 degrees.
She was breathing very quickly and gasping.
I phoned our out-of-hours doctors and then said they would get a doctor to phone back within the hour."
"By 3.30pm Isabella was just slumped on the sofa staring into space.
I knew something wasn’t right and felt a knot form in my stomach.
I can only describe it as a real moment of instinct, and I knew I had to get a doctor to see her quickly.
I put Isabella in the car and drove to A&E. My husband stayed at home with Max."
"We were taken to a cubicle and a nurse came to do Isabella’s observations.
He hooked her up to a heart monitor we could see her heart was racing, her pulse was through the roof and her temperature had soared to 39.9 degrees.
A rash had appeared on Isabella’s chest, face, back and neck. She was losing consciousness and wouldn’t respond to me calling her name. I felt sick with fear."
"Within minutes our cubicle was filled with doctors and nurses. There were tubes being put into both of Isabella’s feet and hands.
She was hooked up to 3 intravenous drips, and she had an oxygen mask on.
The x-ray team were taking chest x-rays and other nurses were taking blood samples from her feet."
"The Consultant confirmed my worst fears and said he thought that Isabella had meningitis. Everything was happening so quickly, my husband was at home with Max and I hadn’t even had the chance to call him to tell him what was going on."
"Isabella was given a huge dose of antibiotics, and the Consultant came back to speak to me.
Isabella was unconscious by that stage and he told me to prepare for the worst. There were two ambulances outside waiting to take us to St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
The Consultant said the next 24 hours would be critical. Isabella would have to be put into a medically-induced coma to prevent her lungs from collapsing. I just kept thinking what if she doesn’t wake up."
"We were taken into Resus. It was so surreal. My worst nightmare had come true ! How could this be happening?
The Consultant told me I had to get my husband to come in and be with us both.
We don’t have family nearby so a friend came over to look after Max."
"At 7pm my husband arrived at A&E and the most miraculous thing happened.
Isabella’s rash had started to subside and she was coming round.
As my husband walked into Resus, Isabella said “Dada”. It was just incredible !"
"It was a new beginning for us all.
Whilst still very poorly, Isabella had come through the worst of it.
Once she was stable enough we were transported by ambulance to the paediatric ward at Pembury Hospital. The newt few days and weeks were horrendously worrying and tough. Max was brought in to hospital and also treated for meningitis as he was showing symptoms of the illness.
"We are so lucky that Isabella and Max have both made a full recovery. A lot of children aren’t as lucky."
Meningitis is a fiercesome disease, and can affect anyone, not just children.
This was brought home to us when we heard of the fight of Rachel Southwood of
Wedding Ideas husband Mark.
Rachel recalls the ordeal her family endured.
"The big M affected me in September of last year.
We were due to have a family barbecue one evening, but my husband came home from work complaining of the: "Worst headache he'd ever had".
He had had what seemed to be a fairly mild ear infection for a couple of days..."
"I sent him off to bed with some paracetamol, annoyed that he was leaving me to do all the preparation for the evening.
I was also concerned that he was just trying to get out of seeing all of my family!"
"When I went to see him around half an hour later, he said the headache was worse, and at that point I thought I would phone NHS Direct.
The trouble with NHS Direct is that you have to first of all speak to an operator, then a health care assistant, then a nurse and after answering around 20 questions, they normally decide whether you should speak to a doctor.
After about 10 questions, however, the nurse told me that she was going to get a doctor to call me back. He did, seconds after I put the phone down..."
"Half an hour later the doctor was at our house, administering huge doses of antibiotics and calling an ambulance.
He told me that he didn't want to scare me, but sometimes these ear infections could travel into the brain through a perforated eardrum, causing Meningitis."
"By the time the ambulance arrived, Mark was losing consciousness.
That doctor had, in fact, saved Mark's life.
There is apparently a three to eight hour window in which to catch it, and start anitbiotics before it's too late. If Mark had gone to sleep, he almost certainly wouldn't have woken up."
"We arrived at the hospital to be greeted by a crash team, whose first job was to hook him up to IV antibiotics, place him in an induced coma, and establish what strain of meningitis it was.
It was the worst kind Pneomococcal, but at least it couldn't be spread."
"He was moved to ITU that night and stayed there for a week.
Every day they took him out of the coma to check on his progress, but each new day he seemed to worsen a little bit."
"Then suddenly, as the consultant was telling me that he thought Mark had developed a absess on his brain and things were possibly going to get worse, Mark sat upright in bed and said: "
Hello!"
"There were around seven doctors in the room, me, his parents, my best friend, and the hospital chaplains - none of us will ever forget that moment..."
"Mark slipped in and out of the coma for the next couple of days, but when he left the ITU ward, his recovery was quick and now 7 months later he is pretty much back to normal, save for a lot of fatigue."
"He had a very lucky escape, and we got to witness a miracle!"
If there is anything that can be learned from these stories, and if there is just one thing you do today, read and be well informed of the
symptoms of this terrifying illness.
In a seperate Blog I have shared some statistics, some great resources for information and the signs and symptoms to look out for, this can be seen
HERE.
Meningitis Resources
The Meningitis Research Foundation - http://www.meningitis.org/
The Meningitis Trust - http://www.meningitis-trust.org/
Meningitis UK - http://www.meningitisuk.org/
