Ana Castillo's story
Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO) member Ana shares her experience with meningitis.
I’m Sue, I’m 29 and Mum to Cieran, aged five. Cieran is a twin – he has a brother Connor – and a sister Caitlin who is now nine.
The twins were born healthy at 38 weeks – Cieran weighed in at 7lb 3oz, both boys were great.
When they were nine months old I went into the boys’ room and Cieran was in his cot shivering with a high fever. I took his temperature and it was 40 degrees. I took Cieran to the doctors and asked could my son possibly have meningitis as at the age of 18 I had a friend that contracted meningococcal meningitis and I recognised the similarities. I was, for want of a better word, fobbed off with a bottle of Calpol. I spoke to two more doctors that day and was again basically told I was an over anxious mother i.e it was 9pm at night my nine-month-old would be drowsy etc.
Admitted to hospital
I left Cieran to sleep off his “viral” (according to three doctors) infection all day Tuesday, but by the Wednesday I knew that my son was definitely getting no better. I rang the doctors and got an afternoon appointment. The doctor examined my child and told me she was 90% my child was OK. I disagreed with this as he didn’t know who I was, winced in pain and couldn’t keep his eyes open. The doctor rang the hospital and told them that my child was ok to go on a ward as he had nothing severe.
To try and cut the story shorter, Cieran was admitted to hospital and within the hour had had a lumbar puncture and was started on IV antibiotics. The next day he was diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis and a brain scan was done, which came back normal. Ten days into treatment Cieran had a two-hour seizure resulting in ventilation and transfer to PICU in Manchester; a brain scan after this showed abnormalities.
As a result of meningitis Cieran is profoundly deaf, he has a cochlear implant but it doesn’t do much i.e. little speech, slight cerebral palsy, epilepsy and is currently undergoing assessment for ADHD and autism.
Four years on, I am struggling – why does meningitis never go away?
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