mind over med

They were in the hospital for nearly a month, the rest of us were all placed in medical quarantine, there were several points we thought they were gonna die, and even though they survived, it was a SUPER close call and they lost about two years of memories from the ensuing brain damage.

Like… a two-uear-long cookie-cutter pocket of thoughts and memories went missing right out of their brain. It’s an inflammation of the brain that cooks it alive.

I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A VACCINE.

One of my colleagues reviewed a child with mild viral symptoms during clinic, I think around lunch time. They even got a senior doctor to look the kid over, because they were a little less experienced themselves. The child's observations (vital signs) we're normal and they looked good, just like a normal kid with the snuffles and a cough. No signs of pneumonia.

As every good doctor should, they told the parents what to look out for, and when to seek help if things changed.

The parents got worried that evening. They drove you the hospital but the child got VERY sick on the very short drive to hospital.

The child died that evening. They had rapidly developed pneumococcal meningitis. A condition we can now vaccinate against with the pneumococcal vaccine. When the case was examined, nothing was missed, the child had simply become rapidly and life threateningly sick within a few hours with an extremely aggressive infection with a high fatality rate.

Most experienced doctors I know have a story like this - or a story about someone who came into A&E (ED) mildly unwell but only developed actual meningitis symptoms during their wait in the department and could have died if they were sent home earlier.

Cases like this are why I try to drill into each patient when they need to go straight to A&E.

At a GP surgery we actually carry only a few drugs to give patients ourselves, because if someone is sick we call an ambulance and send them over to the hospital ASAP. The aim is to not delay sending people to hospital, as that is where the real intensive treatment starts.

We have defibrillators for cardiac arrest. Adrenaline for anaphylactic (life threatening) allergic reactions. Oxygen, salbutamol, ipratropium (for asthma or copd) and often dexamethasone (for croup) to help if someone is seriously struggling to breathe...and benzylpenicillin. The initial antibiotic injection for suspected meningitis. Because you do not wait for test results to treat it. You don't even wait for them to get to hospital, or even for them to get into an ambulance. You trat as soon as you suspect it. Because by the time it is confirmed, it is often too late.

It boggles my mind that there are people who think it's an unnecessary vaccine. Or who think that a couple less shots for their kids is worth risking an increased chance of developing meningitis.

My practice took care of a 15 month old child. Parents were antivax.

This baby (like many infants and toddlers) had recurrent ear infections and were waiting to see ENT to get ear tubes.

The patient was seen in clinic and had a bad ear infection, plus cough, congestion, fevers, and poor appetite, but vital signs were as expected (low fever and very slight tachycardia) and the child was playful in the exam room. My partner prescribed antibiotics and arranged follow up in two weeks for an ear recheck.

That little toddler decompensated (fevers that wouldn't break and crying non stop, wouldn't eat or drink) so the parents took them to the emergency room.

In the end the child was found to have Hib meningitis.

A disease that we have a vaccine series that is 95% effective at preventing...

That little toddler left the hospital three weeks later profoundly changed. That child will never see or hear again- they were rendered completely blind and deaf and will remain so as long as they live

(Unfortunately parents did not follow up with audiology (because it was two hours away from home) and they missed the window of time where cochlear implants would have been an option)