Read Others' Stories

T.E.A.M. > Read Others' Stories

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Sheri, California, who lost her 3 year old son

My son was 3 years old. Christian woke up with a fever. It took me a couple hours to get him back to sleep after giving him a fever reliever and a cool bath. I woke up a couple hours later with him still burning up. I was very worried and called his doctor and got him to be seen at eleven that morning.

I got him into to the doctor's at eleven. The nurse that came in did not take his tempature, because she had left the thermometer in the other room. The doctor did his normal exam: looked in his ears, listened to his chest. He gave me some suppositories because Christian wasn't holding anything down. His doctor told me that Christian would be better in a couple days, he told me my son just had a bug. I was more worried and questioned him but took him on his knowledge. When I got home and was making him soup, my daugher called me. Christian had pooped all over himself. As we were cleaning him up my daughter noticed the spots.

Later I found out it was the rash. It did not look like a rash to me, they looked like small bruises under the skin. I called the doctor's office imediately and described what my son Christian was experiencing. The lady on the line told me the doctor was with a patient and she would have him call me back. I nervously waited. I tryed to wait patiently. After almost an hour went by with no phone call, I got back on the phone and told the woman on the line that my son was very sick, and if they did not see my son I was going to take him into the emergency room. They told me to bring him back in. It was 3 o'clock by then.

When I got back into the doctor's office, within seconds an older doctor rushed over to me and took one look at Christian and told me I had a very sick boy. He took Christian out of my hands and rushed him in to one of the rooms. The last words I heard from my son were in that room. He was saying,"I want my mommy." The doctors were displaying urgency. In moments there was an ambulance and they rushed my son to the nearest emergency room. I went with them. They rushed him into a room with all this equipment and started hooking up my son to wires. They put my son into an induced coma. They were working on getting him stabilized so they could transfer him to Children's Hospital. They were waiting for the specialist to get there. I contacted my family and Christian's father. We drove up to the hospital as Christian went in the ambulance. They took him up to the urgent care floor.

My son never got better; he died the next day, Friday, June 13th, 1997. I went home that afternoon without my son, my baby boy. It's been 14 years since he was taken from me. "I want my mommy," were his last words. I was right there and he did not see or hear me. He caught a bug and the bug got him. This was before they had the immunization for meningitis. My son would still be alive today if they did.

Nicholas, Meningitis Survivor, Georgia

I had spinal meningitis when I was 8 years old. I'm now 21. Luckily I lost no limbs and came out just fine after my long week in Egleston Children's Hospital. From what I remember, I was sick one day, starting off with headaches and stomach pain and coughing with some vomiting. My mom took me to the local hospital, and they said it was just the flu and I'd be fine, and that she was over worrying. Overnight it seemed the symptoms got worse, and that's when my eyes became extremely sensitive; the smallest bit of light hurt and my legs became EXTREMELY sensitive. The lightest touch or breeze to barely scrape my leg would send the most excruciating pain up my back and all over my legs, as if somebody was literally stabbing a sword through the bottom of my feet into my back up to my head.

Getting me into the car to take me to Egleston was hard, because my mom had to pick me up, and the pain of her touching my legs literally knocked me out. I woke up inside the hospital prepped for a spinal tap. That as well was a horrible pain, with an extremely long needle put into my spine to draw some fluid for testing. From what they said, spinal fluid was supposed to be clear and mine was so foggy it might as well have been a solid color. They put me into a room and kept all the lights off for me. I remember having IV's. There were 2 other people in the hospital with the same disease. I don't remember if they made it or not, but I remember it was the longest week of my life.

My dad used to spend the night in my room, and he got in trouble all the time for not wearing his protective mask and I got to play Nintendo 64 before anybody else. It took me about a week after being released from the hospital before I was finally able to walk again on my own. I have never seen my mom as happy as I did that day. It's a brief story because I was so young, and I can't remember every detail, plus I was constantly passed out from pain. But it was a fight I'm happy I won, and now I'm serving in the Army. My back still causes me tons of pain and even working out the muscles and all doesn't really help. I've adjusted to it and hopefully it won't get too bad again. Thanks for listening.

Charles, Survivor, Texas

I contracted meningococcal meningitis when I was only three days old. I was very lucky and received treatment within hours of contracting the disease. In 1946, penicillin was the only drug available to combat meningitis. Back then, the survival rate was one in seven, according to the doctors at St. Mary's Infirmary in Galveston, Texas, where I was treated. It was not easy for me to live with the neurological after effects. It took me longer to master new skills and concepts. I discovered through the years that my way of learning was different than it was for others, but I could, and did, learn.

I served 30 years with the military both reserve and active duty and received Letters of Commendations from Generals in the Air Force, and both the Navy Achievement Medal and Navy Commendation Medal. At age 57, I have proven that survivors of bacterial meningitis can succeed in life and overcome the challenges that life presents.

Michelle, Michigan, who lost her 2 year old son to meningococcal disease

Our beautiful little Boy Christopher Todd was born healthy on 7/22/1995. He was our second and had a very loving big brother. Life was wonderful. We had everything anyone could ever hope for. A house and two awesome boys. Life was good. Then when he was two, our lives changed forever. It was his dad's birthday, and we had plans for dinner, and the boys were going to Grandma's house. Little Todd was fine all day. NO SYMPTOMS. Then he started to slow down and run a mild fever. We called off dinner thinking he had just a bug. After all he was two and my oldest was in school. I figured it was just something that would pass. Within an hour, his fever spiked to 105 and he started to have a seizure from the fever. We immediately rushed him to the nearest ER. The doctors did not seem too concerned. They got the fever under control fairly quickly, and he was alert and playing again in his hospital bed. They ran a battery of test with zero results. Still thinking this would pass, his dad went home with our older son. A few hours later I noticed purplish spots showing up everywhere. I buzzed the nurse, screaming & crying that he stopped breathing. Holding my lifeless little boy in my arms, the nurse took him from me and carried him off to another room. Another nurse showed up and they tried to revive him. Then all these doctors showed up and a security guard showed up to keep me out of the room. They wouldn't let me in the room while they worked on him. After 15 minutes or so they came out and told me my beautiful little boy passed and they were sorry. I had already called his dad and other family and was hysterical telling to get to the hospital ASAP. His dad made it just as they were coming out to tell me the news. They could not tell me even then what happened to my healthy little boy. It took over a week to find out what took our angel from us. This disease took him from us in less than 12 hours from the 1st sign of any sickness. Until that day I had never even heard of this disease. Even now 13 years later, people seem unaware of just how dangerous this is, and that there is a way to prevent it. Not knowing, not being educated was and will always be my biggest regret in life. He will always be in our hearts. If his death can save one child, then he will not have died in vain.

Joey, Georgia, Meningitis Survivor

I was 19 years old when I contracted Meningococcal Meningitis in August of 1996. I lived in Jasper, Georgia, at the time and was enjoying my summer with friends. We had been camping at a nearby river and had gone to town on Friday night to get something to eat and ride around. After going to dinner around 6pm, we decided to go to a friend's house nearby. At about 7:30 I felt like my head was about to explode. Fifteen minutes later I had my friend stop the car so I could throw up. I recall thinking that I must have gotten a bad burger. We started back, and no more than 15 minutes later I had my friend pull over again. This time I could not make it back to the car. My friends took me home to my mom's house. I told my mom that I must have the flu and that I just need to get some rest.

The next morning I awoke to an overwhelming headache and pain in my lower extremities. My mother had to work every other Saturday and as my luck would have it, she was gone. I tried to stand to get to the restroom but I fell and ended up soiling myself. I struggled to take a shower. In the shower, I fell and pulled the curtain down on top of me. The pain in my legs at this point kept me from walking. After getting dressed, I pulled myself to the couch to rest. It was around 11:00 am. At this point it seemed like all I did was blink my eyes and my suroundings would change. I closed my eyes and then my mom was home (4:30pm); then I closed my eyes, opened them, and my mom was calling 911. I blinked and then the paramedics were in front of me. I blinked and even more people were in the house, even the local police. The last thing I recall is that I was fighting with the nurse about a catheter, as I did not care for one. I woke up 3 weeks later in another hospital. The pain was still there but was a lot different. When I came to, I recalled the doctor saying not to expect much to my mom and my sister. The doctor told me I was a sick young man and asked if I understood that. I blinked once as I was still on a ventilator. He said I was going to lose my legs, and that he did not know how much would be amputated. I strugled to lift up and see my feet. My mother did not want me to look, but the doctor lifted the bed just so I could see my black shriveled up toes. The black ran all the way up to my thighs. I also looked at my hands and they were black. I tried my best to move my fingers, but they did not respond. The doctor told my family that they needed to start thinking about my final arrangements. I was told my mom went nuts.

I spent 5 mounths total at the hospital, had 18 operations and more pain than any one should know. I found your site almost 15 years after I lost both legs from this awful thing. I have never met a person that had MM. I often feel like no one around me can understand some of the challenges I have faced and still face day to day. I found myself in tears at the stories on your site. My heart reaches out to the families of the ones lost.

I now have two great kids of my own. I am grateful for the work you do in protecting ones from MM and making the stories of yourselves and loved ones available for people like me to read. Just knowing you are not alone in this crazy world will help get some through another day.

Mick, California, meningitis survivor

Friday, April 9, I was working in my garage. Suddenly I felt drained of energy. I got super cold. I was shivering and felt like I wanted to throw up . I thought I had food poisoning for sure. I went to the bathroom and forced myself to vomit, which I did very violently. I could not get warm.

At 2:00 AM I woke up gasping for air. It felt as if a five hundred pound gorilla was sitting on my chest. I knew something was seriously wrong; however I was not able to put my shoes on. I asked my wife to help me, and then she drove me to the emergency room. After tests for swine flu and pneumonia were negative, I was placed in I.C.U. The doctors did not know what was wrong with me. My breathing became weak and I was placed on a breathing machine. I was placed in a drug induced coma for 4 days. During these four days I had two surgeries. One surgery was for removing fluid from my lungs. The second was to remove fluid from around my heart. I also developed a high fever and was covered with ice packs. There were 4 tubes coming out of my chest and at least five IV tubes in my arms.

The doctors told me I was extremely lucky to not have had permanent damage. I did not lose my hands or feet. But I feel I cheated death this time and I am grateful for each day I have left. The Los Angeles Department of Health interviewed me where I had been the week before I caught this. A cough or a sneeze can do it.

Alicia, Minnesota, who lost her 19 year old brother to meningitis

About a month ago my 19 year old brother was hit with meningitis. No one expected his sudden death. He'd been having a bad migraine and flu-like symptoms that morning. His girlfriend had told him to go in to the doctor, but he refused, because he is so stubborn. When she came home that evening, she found my young brother had died. Taylor had died of meningitis in his own home, without ever even knowing that he had it. Taylor had had a life threatening accident 2 years previously which left him without his spleen. This is something that is needed in the process to fight things off, and he didn't have it. Taylor was taken at way too young of an age. Meningitis is something that everyone needs to vaccinated for, because it can hit you without even expecting it!

Tiffani, Florida, whose infant daughter had meningitis

I took my daugther to our local children's hospital twice and a different hospital, and we got sent home with the advice that it was a viral infection and it would pass. She had just turned 4 months old and weigted just over 10lbs (because of being so sick).

On Nov. 11, 2008 I took her back to our children's hospital for the third time; it had been 3 days and she had not responded, hadn't opened her eyes, had a fever still of 104.7 (day 5) hadn't eaten in days, not pooping or peeing. You had to look very close at her tummy to see if it was moving. That was my only way of knowing she was still alive. She was so limp like a rag doll. Doctors came in our room again and did blood work, x-rays, and urine again and it all came back "normal. " I felt like they were going to sent us home again so I called my mom. While I was on the hospital phone, Libbie started having a seizure. Libbie vomited and violently jerked off the table. Libbie's seizure lasted 72 long minutes. I kept telling her momma is here, momma is here. Please keep fighting baby girl, daddy is coming he is almost here, hang on. Finally she stopped, her tiny body was still. they then rushed her to CT and then to the PICU. Then the news came little Libbie had Meningococcal Meningitis, and the survival rate was not good.

Libbie-Ann Grace was able to come home the day before Thanksgiving 2008. Our local news station came to the hospital. Libbie was on TV, and we wanted others to hear her story -- to never give up. I kept coming back again and again until someone listened. Had I just believed what I was being told and just left it at that, my daughter would not be here today. She is a happy and relatively healthy 2 year old. She has brain damage on the left side of her brain, but with the help of a smart neurologist and many therapists, they believed that she had a good chance to re-learn what she lost. She is now doing things that we never thought she would ever do. She can walk, and talk and she was potty trained before she was even 2, and the best part was that several months after she came home she looked at me and said the most precious words on earth- mama. I never thought I would hear those words from my sweet baby girl.

Harvey, Florida, who lost his son, Michael

My son Michael Sean Hodges died from Bacterial Meningitis on May 9, 2009. He developed a severe headache on Wednesday, suffered though it on Thursday, trying but failing to stay at work both days. On Friday morning at 4am, he asked my daughter (his sister) to take him to the Emergency Room. He was there for about five hours while they took a CAT scan and diagnosed a "raging sinus infection". The medical pros gave him pain medication and some antibiotics, and then sent him home, even though HE did not want to go. My daughter said that her brother was crying from the pain. My son RARELY ever cried so the pain must have been intense. My daughter took her brother home to the apartment they shared. She called me at work to let me know that Mike was being treated at the ER for a sinus infection. A few hours later, they called to tell me that he was being transported by EMT to the ER again and was non-responsive to them.

I drove to the hospital and a new doctor was on duty in the ER. He told us that he suspected meningitis and wanted to transport him by air ambulance to the local trauma center for a spinal tap, so that with his unstable condition there would be a qualified neurosurgeon available.

We agreed for his transport by helicopter to the larger hospital and trauma center. We drove there and arrived around 3 pm. My son was in the ER Trauma Center, and they informed us that he was a very sick man and the next 24 hours would be critical. Some of his friends began arriving at the hospital to wait with us.

They transferred Mike to the hospital's Neurological Intensive Care Unit at six pm.

We were allowed in to visit him after they got him prepared. He was intubated for breathing, and other machines were there working to keep his vital signs going. He was totally comatose at that point and had been since earlier in the day.

We all kept a vigil at his room and in the NICU waiting room along with many of his friends who had heard about his condition.

At 10 pm the NICU physician came to us and told us that Mike had suffered brain damage and would most likely not be the same person we had known. Just as that shock was settling in on us, the neurosurgeon came to us at 10:30pm and told us that Mike's brain has swollen to the extent that his brain stem had been pushed down into his neck and he was brain dead.

We kept Mike on the machines until his mother could be flow up from Florida to visit with her son.

We had the machines removed once the hospital ran a comprehensive battery of tests to confirm that my son had truly died. We were with him when the machines were removed and a couple of minutes later, my son's body shut down completely.

Mike was 44 years old at his death. He got sick on Wednesday, he died on Friday, officially on Saturday.

Mike was a wonderful person, loving, caring, helpful. At his memorial service, over 200 people came to honor his memory from all across the country and even from Bermuda.

My son will be missed by all who knew and loved him. But he will be missed most of all by myself and his mother. Parents should not lose a child to death. It is far, far too painful for the heart and soul.

My son is gone, but he is still with us in spirit. And he has seen the face of God.

Daniel, Illinois, who lost his best friend, Josh

I always feel that when writing a story that it has to have a happy ending. I guess in life we realize as we get older that it becomes less and less the case.

My best friend of 10 years passed away on August 25th 2009 of Meningococcal meningitis. He was 26 years old at the time. He was active, healthy... had tons of friends and was surrounded by people who loved him.

Josh W. Herbold was my brother and my best friend. He went into the hospital on Sunday, April 23rd with severe flu-like symptoms. It seemed to take days for the doctors to finally diagnose it as meningitis and by the time they did it was too late to do anything about it. My last words from Josh were not spoken... the last time I got to see him with his eyes open was that Monday. I told him that we were not going anywhere and that there would always be someone there and he shook his head "no" - I can only imagine him thinking that he didn't want anyone seeing him like that. A tear rolled down his cheek and it took everything I had to not cry in front of him. I didn't want him to see the pain in my eyes. I didn't want him to see me cry. You see, Josh saved my life so many times in so many ways while he was alive that I would have given anything in that very moment to save his.

The part that makes this all even more difficult to handle is that none of us really had a clue as to what exactly Meningococcal Meningitis was or is. We had all heard of Meningitis but this was a whole new ballpark. Even if we had known I guess it wouldn't have made anything easier. We would have understood more of what was going on.

On August 25th 2009 a piece of me died that I will never get back. Meningococcal Meningitis took it from me. I am not upset with the doctors... the hospital... I am upset that we live in a world that something like this can happen and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. I think it is time I try.