William Phillips (pictured above) was diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis at the age of five.

One Friday afternoon William complained to his mother that his right ear felt sore and the next evening he was very restless and sick throughout the night.  William remained in bed on the Sunday morning and it was at this point that Gail felt something was wrong and booked a hospital appointment. As his parents tried to dress him, William’s skin looked yellow, his limbs were floppy and he felt very hot.

In hospital William was put straight into a High Dependency Unit (HDU) and meningitis was diagnosed. However, it was not clear whether the meningitis was viral or bacterial as he was too ill for a lumbar puncture.  William was given drugs for both types and steroids to stop the swelling around his brain and was put under hourly observations for the first 24 hours. It was an extremely difficult and anxious time for his parents, while they waited for William to stabilise enough to have a lumbar puncture.

After approximately five days, a lumbar puncture was performed and pneumococcal meningitis was diagnosed.

One week after he was admitted, William was allowed home on the condition he return to hospital daily for the next seven days for hour-long antibiotic treatment. The pneumococcal meningitis has left William with mild hearing loss in his left ear and moderate/severe in his right ear, so he now wears hearing aids. William was not vaccinated against pneumococcal disease because the choice was not offered, which is something Gail deeply regrets:  “I’m still shocked that what I thought was just an ear infection turned into the worst experience of our lives.  Having seen the devastating impact of pneumococcal disease, I would not hesitate to vaccinate my child.  I’m keen to let other people know what we have been through to help raise awareness of the disease.”

Patient case studies kindly provided by Meningitis Research Foundation