It was Easter Friday . My husband and I left our sons 17 and 15 in the house and were out looking for a new car. Heading home at lunchtime we received a call from our younger son to tell us to come home soon. Our elder son Luke was still in bed and had been sick and felt terrible.
Luke was and is a runner and fit and healthy. When we got home luke was curled up in bed shaking he had been sick and had a raging headache. Something just told me to ring an ambulance when the ambulance arrived they weren't concerned, they thought that because luke was a teenager and it was Easter he had probably been out drinking the day before. I told them that he was fit hadn't been out was actually a runner and wasn't interested in drinking. They said that they could give him paracetamol and I could observe him or they could take him in to hospital. I asked them to take him in.
Although he felt really Ill and was still shaking they asked him to walk to the ambulance. He looked and felt so I'll. once in the ambulance they took his blood pressure and became concerned. He was admitted to ear and was sick and just curled in the bed . We had to leave him there like that in the evening after visiting.
At 7am the next morning we received a call to get to the hospital as soon as we could Luke had developed a rash and they suspected meningitis. We got there and he was rushed to intensive care. The consultant spoke with us and still continued to ask if Luke had been drinking or taken drugs . I insisted no that he had been racing the previous week and didn't take drugs . In the afternoon they told us that they were going to put him on life support . To protect his heart . It was and has been the most terrifying experience of my life . They didn't give much hope to us.
Luke was on a ventilator for some days until they stabilised the septicaemia. At one point a nurse circled the rash and said if it got worse it would not be good . Eventually they wanted to take him off the ventilator but he wouldn't wake . Terrifying . When they eventually got him to consciousness they removed the tube and he spoke to say he felt terrible.
Luke survived he has some deafness and still has scarring on his ankles . But he is strong and fit and still runs and oversees his own running business. Run Eat Sleep.
Thank goodness for the expertise of the nhs.