Joanna, from Wythall in Birmingham, lost her 16-year-old daughter Bethany to meningitis in 1997. The vaccines were only available for travel then. She tells their story here in support of our No Plan B for MenB campaign.
“Bethany had been unwell over the October half term with tonsillitis and had at one point during the week had an urticaria type rash – she was on antibiotics. The rash faded under pressure and then disappeared.
“She was feeling better and was to go back to school the next day. She was rehearsing a speech she was giving at school. However, she was a bit sick in the night, just a very small amount, and so I persuaded her to stay at home.
Very thorough
“I was able to get an appointment at the doctor at 11.00 for her. He was very thorough, being either in training or newly trained, and took a throat swab and a blood sample. But when I raised it, and showed him a small red mark on her elbow which we assumed might be from lying on it in bed (we are all fair skinned in our family) he assured me it definitely was not meningitis.
“We went home and she rested in bed, dozing from time to time. I had to pop out to collect my younger twins from school, but I knew her 14-year-old brother would be coming home soon and left a note for him to check her. Before I left, Bethany said that she felt better actually.
“A short while after my return, she said she had a bad headache like one she and I had had with a virus once. I rang the doctor again and took her straight down. The doctor saw us quickly and felt it could be meningitis, so rang the hospital to check the dose of antibiotic to give by injection. As soon as she had the injection she said she felt dizzy and then collapsed.
Blue lighted to hospital
“They rang for an ambulance and we were blue lighted to hospital, where there was a team waiting for her. In the ambulance her eyes began to roll up in her head.
“Bethany was put on life support immediately on arrival, but during the night on ICU her pupils became fixed and dilated. She was on life support for a week but very sadly, despite extensive tests, this had to be turned off and she died.
“Afterwards the consultants said that on admission to hospital they felt she had a 90 to 95% chance of survival. There never was a rash and they said that it was MenB, although neither the swab nor the blood test from the morning visit to the doctor showed anything conclusive.
Wish vaccinations had been available
“Our story shows what a nasty insidious illness meningitis is. It was something I had always feared and I watched every programme on television about it so knew what to look out for and what to do. I had the signs and symptoms information where the family could see them at home. I am an ultra-cautious person and yet this still happened to us.
“We wish so much that the vaccinations had been available for Bethany. We are reassured that our other children have been able to have them and now our grandchildren too, but we are still fearful every time they are ill as indeed they are themselves.
“We suffer the loss of our beautiful daughter and sister every day as well as the future she did not have. We are all anxious whenever one of us is ill.”