Meningitis in your words

Kingston Delacruz's story

Location: England
Categories: Bacterial meningitis
Age: Toddler 1-3
Relationship: Parent
Outcome: Recovery with after effects
After effects: Co-ordination problems

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Meningitis in your words
Kingston Delacruz

My son Kingston was born on January 24th and by the first of February he started with fever and we thought it was constipation because he usually pooped every 3-4 hours and it'd been 10 since he did it last. Concerned, we took him to an urgent care and the doctor told us he was fine after taking some simple virals.

We took him home and the very next day he would not stop crying and had a fever of 104. We took him to an ER and they started an IV right away and transferred him to a children’s hospital. By the time we got to the other hospital he had foam in his mouth and looked very faint. They did a spinal tap and concluded he had bacterial meningitis contained by the strep b bacteria. The doctors said he was so bad they didn’t think he’d make it past the night. I felt like someone has just stabbed me in the heart; I just dropped to my knees and told God I left my son to his hands, if he wanted to take him to do so but to please give me the strength to overcome it.

But he made it after so many prayers, my little one made it through the night. His heart was working so hard they said he needed a blood transfusion or else he would have a stroke or heart attack and he did have three strokes unfortunately.

They had him in the ICU for about two weeks and in that time he had continuous seizures. They did many cat scans and MRIs and his brain damage was so bad that they thought he would never walk, hear or see. He however was showing different signs – he was recuperating quickly. He then got transferred out of the ICU and he was still getting all the antibiotics and medicine through a line. He was on oxygen and had a feeding tube but gradually got removed and started feeding by bottle, but with a thickener.

"His brain damage was so bad they thought he would never walk, hear or see"

After a million prayers and a month he was discharge with like 50 follow-up appointments and seizure meds .

Long story short, he ended up partially paralysed on his right side from the strokes, still gets seizures, just got ruled out for epilepsy and he had a very hard time eating- he threw up everything that had texture. He had had a lot of therapy three times a week for his eating , vomiting, walking and major motor skills – he still trips often but he is up and running doing everything any two-year-old would do. He still does not talk but he is surely getting there with the help of his speech therapist.

As an outcome of the meningitis he now has Chiari malformation, from the trauma to his brain. That is when you have extra brain tissue blocking the spinal fluid from flowing from brain to spinal cord. He might need decompression surgery at age four if he has real bad headaches or not enough passage of the fluid. He was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy because of the major brain damage he had.

I would tell every parent to be strong for your child, and have faith in God. If you believe, he will make miracles and my son Kingston is one of them.

Vivian Vazquez
September 2010