![Eric Sharkey - Meningitis in your words](/getattachment/6ff7a5a5-d390-4c59-a1ce-1d909e6daed5/Eric-Sharkey)
My dad passed away from acute bacterial meningitis on the 29th July 2022. Here's his story.
My dad Eric, a 63 year old man contracted covid about 10 days before his death. He wasn't very ill with it just aches and pains and everything else that comes with having covid.
He was staying in bed recovering, would get up for a few minutes every day, eat some food and then go back to bed. When it came to the 28th, the day before he passed, everything was the same, he had dinner then went to sleep.
I had a driving lesson that night, and the last time I saw or spoke to him was when I went into his room (he had his own room) to see if my instructor was outside. He asked me what I was doing, and I said, and then I left. When I came back that night I didn't go into him as I presumed he was sleeping again.
I went to bed and then at around 11:30pm that night my mam said she checked on him and he was asleep. The next morning around 12pm I was getting my stuff ready to go babysit my nephew and then go to work. For some reason I went into his room and to this day I don't know why, but I saw him sitting on the ground unresponsive.
And so came everything after someone close to you passes. It wasn't till a year later we found out the results of his autopsy. Acute bacterial meningitis, supposedly brought on by covid. So whether my father was a victim of covid or meningitis we'll never really know, but I wanted to share my story to let people know how quickly a loved one can be taken. From being relatively OK the night before to being gone overnight. It haunts me to this day that we didn't see how sick he really was, and that he didn't tell us how he really felt.
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I didn't really know much about meningitis, which is why when the autopsy came back we were just shocked, as we thought it was a random heart attack or something similar. I would say to people if your loved one is sick to make sure you bring them to the hospital as you never know what the outcome will be.