Cassie Carman's story

My daughter Cassie became unwell with Migrane/flu symptoms on the 2nd January 2019.

We were not overly concerned as she had previously suffered with migraines, but after she had vomited and her temp was up my husband noticed a rash on her wrist and immediately sent me a photo. I called him immediately and told him to do the glass test. It did not disappear, so I rushed home and we took her to the hospital immediately.

Initially we took her to the urgent care who did not take her symptoms seriously, so we left and took her straight to the Emergency Room. Even there the nurse told us it was probably flu !

When the Dr entered her room I told him she has a fever, vomiting and non blanching skin rash and I had done the glass test. He looked me in the eye put his mask on and took control. From then on she received excellent care. Treated immediately with antibiotics, LP and transferred to ITU.

She is today home after 5 days in hospital and she is very lucky to be recovering well. She has some mild headaches and a little joint pain but these are getting better daily.

I want to share that we spent 40 years in the UK, we are currently living near Seattle, so we were lucky enough to experience the NHS and education from the Meningitis Research Foundation, so we knew about the glass test and symptoms and acted quickly.

Every US parent and even every nursing staff we met were unaware of the rash and glass test, we are sharing your information and trying to educate. The Dr in the ER who took action, said in 20 years, he had never had a parent point out that it was a non blanching rash and talk about the glass test !!

Thank you for the education we received as parents in the UK it truly can be life saving. We will continue to spread this life saving information.

Annette Carman
January 2019