Woman dies from meningitis; fifth case suspected (in NH)

[MaineDem]

BENNINGTON, N.H. -- An 18-year-old woman died from bacterial meningitis Saturday, one day after a fifth New Hampshire teenager developed symptoms of the potentially fatal swelling of the brain and spinal cord.

Susan Perry told the New Hampshire Sunday News that her daughter, Rachel, died Saturday afternoon at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where she had been since she was diagnosed with the illness on Christmas.

Meanwhile, health authorities said a 13-year-old Colebrook boy also appeared to have contracted the disease. The boy, who became sick Friday, was in critical condition at Dartmouth-Hitchcock on Sunday.

Three other teenagers also were hospitalized. Two 15-year-old sophomores at Monadnock Regional High School were diagnosed Wednesday, and a 14-year-old Concord-area boy suspected of having the disease was hospitalized Friday.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2003/12/28/woman_dies_from_meningitis_fifth_case_suspected/

[54anickel]

1. My sympathies to the families. My friends daughter died of this a

few years back, very ugly way to go. The college doctors were treating her for strep, she came home for Christmas and went downhill fast. Mother was a nurse and father was a doctor, they knew right away when she got home that it was something serious and got her straight up to the hospital.

[amazona]

2. hmmm

I thought I read of 4 cases recently in Baton Rouge (a college town), Louisiana but the link is down now. They said it was not an epidemic but if there are similar events affecting teen-agers so far up north it makes you wonder if it is all over the nation.

A friend almost died of this back in the 1970s...seems they would have had a better handle on it by now. :-(

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

3. Uhm...

... I almost died of it in 1976. Luckily a brain surgeon had just came out of surgery when I was brought into St Joseph's Hospital in Denver. The original sypmtoms were that of a brain tumor, he stabalized me until the spinal tap could be analyzed in the medical lab. I was in a coma for two weeks, lost one of my senses, and parts of two others. I was ===> || <=== that close to being dead. Oh, and I spent my 13th birthday in the hospital, four days after I came out of the coma. Cause? Dirty swimming pool, because my best friend came down with it exactly a year later, but from our experience, his parents were able to identify the symptoms before it went full blown. The city then promptly made plans to finally overhaul the plumbing system at the city pool, after years of being tightwads and refusing to spend money for repairs.

Just because you are "cured" of meningitis, doesn't mean you are through with it and fit as a fiddle. Every spinal tap they do further weakens the lower back.

My condolences to the families who have lost a loved one, and those whose loved ones are seriously ill.