Meningitis in your words

Django Turner's story

Location: England
Categories: Pneumococcal
Age: Toddler 1-3
Relationship: Parent
Outcome: Recovery with after effects
After effects: Hearing problems

It was just after my little Ginger Nut’s first birthday when he became ill.

There were no startling symptoms; he was just a little restless, cried more than usual, ran a temperature and then was back to normal. We were staying with my in-laws and most of the family thought he was probably teething. I agreed but, I can't put my finger on why, I just wasn't happy with him at all. I insisted on taking him to an out-of-hours doctor (ruining a planned family day). The doctor thought he was teething too, so we stayed for another night with Django clearly unhappy.

"He spent two days in isolation with me in a comatose state and then - despite all my worst fears - bravely fought it off."

We left for home (London at the time) on the Sunday and had another disturbed night. I felt something was wrong and I took him to my GP. She couldn't see much wrong with him but as I was so concerned she said we would go for a precautionary blood test at our local hospital. God bless her.

When the blood test result was given to me by two paramedics, who ushered me straight to a waiting ambulance and blue lighted us to St Marys, Paddington, I knew something was badly wrong. Django had meningitis.

He spent two days in isolation with me in a comatose state and then - despite all my worst fears - bravely fought it off. He is now a gorgeous 14 year old with just some minor hearing loss to show for the experience. Parents - follow your instinct! St Mary's tell me that they would rather see over-zealous parents any day than have to deal with fully developed meningitis, when it is often too late.

Rebecca Turner
September 2015