Leah Luckeroth's story

Meningitis is terrifying. It strikes without warning, progresses rapidly and shows no mercy. Even the slightest delay in diagnosis can have devastating consequences. Like many doctors, meningitis is one of the few illnesses that truly frighten me. It’s also the one I fear overlooking above all else, because I know how quickly it can take a life or change it forever.

Doctors are taught about this disease, but the only cases I was aware of did not survive. I have only ever treated it once – and I truly hope that remains the first and only time.

The first time I treated meningitis

I believe my experience treating Andy Marso would be considered nothing short of a miracle. The images of meeting Andy as he lay on the gurney in our treatment room at Watkins Health Services are vivid to this day. In less than 24 hours, he had gone from being a fit, healthy 22-year-old to fighting for his life.

Andy was wheeled into the treatment clinic by his friend, too weak to walk and clearly seriously ill. When I first entered the room, I immediately noticed the discoloration of Andy’s skin. My first thoughts were heart or kidney failure. But then, as I placed my hands on his forearm and looked at his skin, I suspected my worst nightmare. Meningococcal meningitis went to the top of my differential diagnosis, and I knew immediately we were facing a life-threatening emergency.

My first question for Andy was, “How do we contact your family?”. He told me that his grandmother would answer the phone because his parents were working. I asked one of my colleagues to call his family immediately.

Our best nurse shook as she placed an intravenous line. She was the nurse who knew something was terribly wrong and called me just as I was about to leave the building to take a walk. I literally had less than two minutes left on my schedule for the treatment clinic.

 

A race against time

Andy needed to be transferred to hospital immediately to ensure rapid diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. I was lucky because I could contact the infectious disease doctor within minutes, allowing him to prepare for Andy’s arrival at the local hospital.

If I had not been able to talk to the infectious disease doctor and send Andy by ambulance to the hospital – which was less than ten minutes away – I would have administered the antibiotic, Ceftriaxone, immediately.

Meningococcal meningitis can kill or permanently disable someone in just a few hours. Early antibiotics are the single most important lifesaving intervention, even before hospital care is reached. Once the bacteria enter the bloodstream (meningococcemia), a patient can deteriorate from a simple fever and headache to death within six to twelve hours. Every hour without antibiotics significantly increases mortality. In the case of meningitis, delaying treatment is more dangerous than treating without confirmation.

 

Protecting others

Even after the ambulance arrived to take Andy to the hospital, where the infectious disease doctor was waiting, it was difficult to think of anything else. Yet there were many things to do. Luckily, I worked with many wonderful doctors and nurses and everyone came together to move into the next phase: preventing others who had been in contact with Andy from developing meningitis by distributing the antibiotics, Rifampin or Ciprofloxacin.

That night I hugged my daughters especially tight and worried that Andy would not make it through the night.

 

Survival, complications and resilience

Within hours of his arrival at the hospital, Andy was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. Once stabilized, he was life flighted to the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas City.

There were countless medical issues that developed during and after his hospitalization. These medical challenges have continued over the years and ultimately led to Andy’s recent below-the-knee amputation, complicated by the scar tissue from over 20 years ago. Andy is working hard to be able to walk again.

Andy is a miracle and most people would not have survived everything Andy has overcome to be alive today.

Learning from lived experience: advocacy and impact

Andy graduated top of his class from the School of Journalism at the University of Kansas and has always been wise – but surviving this ordeal made him more than wise.

I am grateful that I was able to develop a relationship with Andy and his family. I have always valued his opinion and believe he has an insight into almost anything that others just do not have. Over the past 20 plus years, I have learned from everything that has happened to Andy.

Andy and his family have advocated for educating the public so that this experience does not happen to another family. His case increased my fund of knowledge and experience. Once I see things, I tend not to forget them, and it helps me when evaluating other patients.

Andy has taught me more than all of my medical knowledge. I have shared and educated countless medical colleagues. His life story resonates on all levels. He was told that he probably would never walk again – but he did. He recently underwent a below-the-knee amputation and has worked tirelessly to be able to walk again with his prosthesis, despite the fact that his scar tissue did not make this an easy feat.

Andy’s case also led to real change: Kansas Statute K.S.A. 76-761a mandates that all Kansas colleges and universities require meningitis vaccinations for incoming students residing in student housing.

 

Why meningitis vaccines matter

If we don’t continue to vaccinate to protect against Meningitis ACWY and Meningitis B, we risk returning to the situation I faced when Andy was wheeled into the treatment clinic by his friend. Teens and young adults, particularly in high school and college, are at the highest risk. These two peaks for meningococcal disease highlight why vaccination during these years is critical.

Vaccines save lives. My daughters received all available vaccines, including Meningitis B, even before insurance coverage. It is so important to fight against misinformation, especially about vaccines, because the difference between prevention and tragedy is real – and as Andy’s story shows, the consequences of meningitis can last a lifetime.

I think the most important advice I can give to both parents and doctors is: vaccinate for Meningitis ACWY and Meningitis B as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

In 2015, Andy and I both testified before the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in support of making the Meningitis B vaccine part of the routine vaccine schedule. We were partially successful – Meningitis B was added to the universal schedule, as a “shared clinical decision-making” vaccine.

Now the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy replaced all 17 knowledgeable members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in June of 2025 destroying everything that Andy, his family and I worked so hard to achieve. In the United States, I recommend following the guidance of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians regarding all vaccines. I am grateful that the State of Kansas, where I live, continues to align with these guidelines.