I was infected with meningococcal septicemia when I was approximately 10 months old which would be around February of 1963.
My mother was able to recognize the symptoms because my cousin had died from meningitis a number of years prior a number of years prior. After what was a challenging hospital stay with a very high fever and according to my mother being packed in ice I survived, much to the surprise of the medical staff of children's hospital in Buffalo.
I had a number of after effects from meningococcal septicaemia resulting in quite a few healed lesions, primarily on my legs, but some on the rest of my body. I have a 2 and 1/4 inch leg discrepancy. When I was 5 years old I had my left ankle fused from bones from my left hip.
Despite what I always considered to be minor challenges I played high school football and track and college track. I remember being told quite a number of times by the doctors when I was young and seeing them very often that I was the first one in Erie county New York to survive this illness. I heard it many times from many sources however I am not sure of its validity.
Jack Cuddihy
July 2020