"The Meningitis Centre is striving to eliminate Meningitis in Australia by lobbying for vaccines and educating the community to be aware of the signs and symptoms. The Centre also provides support for families affected by the disease"
Our experience of meningococcal disease whilst overseas
Our experience came in 2000 when Kristian was 2 and half years old. While travelling in Europe (based in London with my sister), my husband and I took Kristian to Disneyland in Paris, to celebrate Kristian’s Dad’s 40th birthday. The day was fine but we both agreed that Kristian didn’t seem to enjoy Disneyland as much as we had anticipated. That evening while travelling back to our hotel in central Paris, Kristian began screaming uncontrollably on the train. It was as if he was in agony. Nothing could console him. We endured the night. Kristian had an extremely high fever, was in and out of sleep (normally Kristian was a great sleeper). The next morning he still had a fever so we endured the day thinking it was a ‘kid bug’. All day he was quite lethargic and fell in and out of sleep. The fever continued despite Paracetamol. That night the pain seemed worse and Kristian was off all food and fluid, hardly managing to drink but desperate for water. The following morning I sought the help of the Australian Embassy to find a doctor – since we had no joy from the hotel staff finding help. We saw an English speaking doctor on the other side of Paris. Kristian was diagnosed with an unknown illness and prescribed antibiotics “in case in was bacterial”. We administered these as well as a stronger type of Paracetamol that the doctor prescribed. The Paracetamol still seemed to have little effect on the pain or the fever.
We decided to return to London but on our arrival we found that the nearest hospital had closed its emergency department – “could we wait until morning?” We had endured several nights already so we decided we could probably get through another one.
The next morning we presented to one of London’s leading hospitals. Kristian was seen by admitting doctors. Whilst the doctor was examining Kristian a rash began to appear all over Kristian’s body. At this point he was seriously unwell and was like a floppy doll and very dehydrated. The rash spread quickly, the doctor admitted Kristian immediately and administered IV antibiotics and took the blood tests later when he had calmed down after our trauma of getting cannula into his veins.
The tests were negative but the doctors were convinced enough to quarantine us and report to the UK health authorities that they had a case of meningococcal septicaemia. Both Tim and I were treated with antibiotics. Kristian remained in hospital for four days and responded well to treatment. We were allowed to return to my sister’s house (to enjoy the rest of our holiday??) but had to return to the hospital every twelve hours so Kristian could receive more IV antibiotics – this continued for 7 days. We missed our flights home!!
Fortunately Kristian had no long term after effects. It probably took him a good 8 – 9 months before he regained his previous energy levels. He also seemed to have had a susceptibility to get every infection his friends had but worse.
I received great information from the UK hospital, but on or return home we found there was very little information available to us in Australia. I wanted to know more about the illness, wanted to know more about recovery and who was doing research. I wanted printed matter, anything I could get my hands on. I also wanted to let people know that if you think someone is unwell, see a doctor immediately.
