“We lost our beloved daughter to meningitis and now live with the grief.”
Art student Sophie fell ill with headaches, aversion to light and a temperature. After being misdiagnosed, Sophie very sadly later died in hospital.
Sophie’s mum Alice, from London, tells us what happened.
“Sophie was an art student at university. She was nearly 21 years old. She was happy and healthy. The evening before she got ill, she had said she wanted to go out with friends, but felt too tired, so I suggested she went to bed early.
“The next day we were going to celebrate her sister's birthday. Sophie said she was feeling better and we went to the park to play table tennis. When we came home, Sophie said her neck and shoulders ached. I suggested she did some mild exercises. We sat down for lunch, but Sophie couldn't eat. She said her head hurt and she went upstairs to bed.
Shivering violently
“I went up to check on her. She had the curtains closed and said she had a headache. She had a temperature of 38 degrees c. I tried opening the curtains, but she wanted them closed. She was shivering violently. I gave her paracetamol and phoned 111.
“I said I thought Sophie had meningitis. They said I should take her to hospital within the hour, so we left and went to A&E straight away. At the hospital I again repeated that I thought Sophie had meningitis. We were triaged and sat and waited a long time for blood tests and to see a doctor. There was no sense of emergency.
“Even though I kept asking the doctor if it was meningitis, he dismissed it, did a CT scan, said it was clear and that there was no need for a lumbar puncture. Sophie was discharged with possibly flu or migraine. He gave her codeine and we took her home.
Purple rash
“In the night, Sophie vomited and her temperature had gone up. I thought it was just a virus as we had been to hospital and been discharged. In the morning she had a purple rash all over and puffy lips. I immediately phoned 999 and they started antibiotics in the ambulance and she was rushed to hospital.
“In hospital they tried various transfusions and put her in an induced coma. They tried to restart her heart several times and she died that afternoon from meningococcal septicaemia.
“My husband talked to a nurse on Meningitis Now Helpline. It was just after Sophie died. It helped just having someone listen who understood.
MenB
“Sophie had had all the MenACWY vaccinations. Blood tests taken the second time she was in hospital showed that she had a strain of MenB. If the doctor in the hospital had known the red flags for meningitis and acted upon them, Sophie would still be alive. Equally, she might still be alive if she had been given the MenB vaccination.
“We believed that she had been vaccinated against meningitis and had no idea that she was unprotected against another strain.”
