The past week has been filled with meningitis horror stories, but it’s so important to raise awareness – particularly regarding cases of misdiagnosis.
This was the scenario that British couple Carly and Rickie Hicks found themselves in recently, when their six-month-old daughter Lily was diagnosed with chickenpox but, in truth, was suffering from meningitis.
The couple shared their story with Meningitis Now, revealing that their concerns were first raised when Lily began shivering and ‘moaning’ while breathing, and also had a high temperature and red spots on her back.
While the tot was diagnosed with chickenpox by a paediatrician, her parents ended up having to rush her to their local hospital in Barnet when they discovered a purple rash on her body. Lily was then diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia and given a 20% chance of survival.
Lily was transferred to an intensive care unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she was sedated and put on a ventilator for five days. After a total of two weeks in hospital, she was finally released home – although she is still being treated for side-effects of the illness.
Now, Carly and Rickie have spoken out to add their voices to the campaign to make the Men B vaccine available to all children.
Alarmingly, Carly also revealed that she had trouble trying to get her hands on the Men B vaccine, privately, for Lily.
“I personally feel that the Government have advertised the meningitis vaccination before it was properly supplied, because there was not enough vaccine stock available when I took Lily to have it done,” she said.
