Patient Perspectives: How meningitis B affects the body
Pediatrician David Hill, MD, FAAP, leads a discussion about meningitis B (MenB) and the devastating effect it can have on the body.
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] When you're in your early 20s, the thought that you're dying, it never crossed my mind.
I'm Dr. David Hill. I'm a pediatrician in Wilmington and Goldsboro, North Carolina. And today, I'm joined by John, Eileen,
and Tim, as well as Andy and Linda, to discuss meningitis B. I have one student that is a sophomore in college.
And I think that he had a vaccine, but I'm not sure. I need to check with my pediatrician. So I guess one of the questions would be,
what do I need to ask my pediatrician? There are two flavors of meningococcal meningitis.
And therefore, two different vaccines. The one that we are most familiar with is a quadrivalent vaccine, and it
protects against four different subtypes of meningococcus That has been the standard part of the vaccine regimen
for quite a while now. A lot of kids start that when they're 16. And recalling your sophomore's vaccine record,
it's almost certain that that's the one that she's already had. The question is, did she get vaccinated
against the other kind of meningococcus, meningococcus B? I want to turn our attentions now
to John and Eileen, who had a daughter who was affected tragically by type B meningococcal meningitis.
Caitlin was at Marist College up Poughkeepsie, New York. She was experiencing all these flu-type symptoms
quite severely. And about 2 o'clock in the morning, we got a phone call that her roommates had called an ambulance.
So we just-- we jumped in the car and we drove up there. Within a half hour, they were intubating her.
JOHN: She was awake and lucid when we got up there, but she was in pain. That was Monday morning.
EILEEN: That was Monday morning. She died Wednesday. JOHN: So Wednesday is when she passed away. She had her-- Vaccine. --the vaccine that was available at the time, she had.
EILEEN: Mem B was not out. Yeah, it's very rare. Cate was the only one on the campus that got it. This shot is so important.
If she had had that shot-- so I would recommend everyone getting covered for it, no matter how rare it is. It's one of those things where if it does happen to you,
you're gonna regret not having it. I was a senior in college. I was actually probably in the best shape of my life.
And then one night, I started to feel sick. And again, all of those early symptoms
were all flu-like symptoms. By the next morning, I literally couldn't walk. Thousands of little purple spots had kind of appeared on my arms
overnight. I mean, I can certainly remember actually telling my friend who came to check on me, I don't know if I've ever felt this sick before.
Within 24 hours, I was being airlifted to Kansas City to the nearest level one trauma unit
and spent the next three weeks in a coma. Then when I woke up, I realized I couldn't
move my hands and feet. And the plastic surgeon came in and explained that the bacterial infection had traveled
throughout my bloodstream and had cut off the circulation to my extremities. And my arms and legs had been without proper blood flow
for the better part of a month. But I still ended up having the front half of both of my feet amputated and all of my fingers amputated
except for my right thumb. It was quite a journey and something I wouldn't wish on anybody. You know, both of these stories to me
point out some of the really most important things to understand about meningococcal meningitis,
which is how rapidly it progresses. And meningococcal disease just seems
to have a bullseye on the healthiest people we can possibly imagine, and one of the scariest things
to address as a patient, a parent, or a clinician. Andy, what advice do you have for Linda today,
as a patient who's going through this? I mean, my first advice to people is always to strongly consider getting the vaccine,
especially if you're gonna be in a group living situation like I was. It's proven safe and effective in clinical trials.
And then, I mean, the other things, you know, practicing good hygiene, like we talked about. That wasn't-- wasn't always necessarily my strong suit
in college. I can definitely remember times when me and some other people maybe shared the same drinks or the same water bottle.
That kind of thing. One of the things we did is we had these refrigerator magnets made with a picture of our daughter
and all the symptoms on it. We want to try to prevent that from ever happening again. [MUSIC PLAYING]
infections
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