Freshman Catches Meningitis at a College Party. His Mom Recognized the Symptoms and Saved His Life

NEED TO KNOW

• U.K. mom Gaynor Simpson recognized meningitis symptoms in her 18-year-old college freshman after he caught the disease at a party, leading to prompt treatment

• The current meningitis outbreak in the U.K. has sickened 27 people and caused two deaths

• The outbreak has prompted a call for vaccine awareness, as the meningitis B vaccine wasn’t introduced until 2015

A U.K. mom was able to spot the symptoms of meningitis — which can often be dismissed as the flu or a bad cold — saving her son’s life after he caught the infectious disease at a college party.

“He’d been absolutely fine,” Gaynor Simpson tells Kennedy News and Media about her son, Ross. In 2023, when he was 18 and a freshman at the University of Glasgow, Ross called her from school to say that suddenly, “he wasn’t feeling particularly well.”

Ross had attended a party the week before — and now, had a headache and struggled to sleep. Simpson “asked him if he wanted to come home and I could keep an eye on him, and we’re very thankful that he did.” When he got home, Ross took a painkiller and went to bed. Later that evening, Simpson said, “He was sat in his bed with his head in his hands and said he couldn’t stand the pain in his head.”

That’s when Ross threw up on the floor — and Simpson immediately suspected the cause of his sickness, asking him if was experiencing any of the symptoms of meningitis: “I asked him if he had a stiff neck and he said yes, then asked him why the light was off in his room and he said he couldn’t stand the light in his eyes,” she said. “Then I said, ‘I think this is meningitis.’ “

She rushed her son to the hospital, where his condition deteriorated. He was admitted to the ICU and put on life support after becoming unresponsive. Testing confirmed he had meningitis, which had triggered sepsis, a potentially fatal immune response.

“The first three days were really uncertain. We were told it was very possible that he might not make it. He was incredibly ill,” Simpson said. After five days on life support, “he managed to turn a corner.”

“It was a long road to recovery. We’re very lucky. It’s the worst thing that any parent can possibly go through. You’re not the same person again after that,” she said, calling meningitis “a cruel and very unforgiving disease. It’s terrifying how quickly it can move. It’s so important that people know the symptoms.”

Simpson shared that a girl from the same party her son had attended also ended up hospitalized, theorizing, “he probably did get it at the party, you just don’t know. It’s just unlucky they both ended up developing it and thankfully both survived.”

Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the ongoing U.K. rise of meningitis cases in the college town Canterbury, which has sickened 27 and caused the deaths of an 18-year-old girl, identified as Juliette, from the English county of Kent, and an unnamed 21-year-old University of Kent student. A 9-month-old infant has also been hospitalized with meningitis B. The U.K. Health Security Agency says the baby “is not currently linked to the outbreak but UKHSA will continue to investigate this case.” The outbreak has been called a “super-spreader” by health officials, leading many to call for increased awareness about the meningitis B vaccine, which was introduced in 2015.

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“It is infuriating and heartbreaking in equal measure that we almost lost our son who’s in a high-risk group and we didn’t know anything about this vaccine,” Simpson said. “This vaccine should be offered to that high-risk group. People have no idea there’s another vaccine out there.”

“When the news broke about this outbreak, I was just utterly heartbroken because I know exactly how those parents feel. It brought it all back for me. You realise you were so close to a very different outcome.”

Simpson urged others to be “aware of the symptoms” that indicate it’s meningitis — like a stiff neck or light sensitivity. “We don’t want people to have health anxiety, but it’s really important that people have these symptoms in the back of their mind and get to hospital as quickly as they can.”

Read the original article on People