Meningitis: Teenager is proof it's not just children who are struck by the disease | Mail Online

Nicole Wilson survived meningitis, but as a result she has lost both legs, most of her fingers and the sight in one eye

Teenager Nicole Wilson was on a summer holiday with a friend when, one morning, she suddenly developed quite inexplicable symptoms.

Within half an hour the otherwise healthy 16-year-old was overwhelmed by severe­nausea and dizziness.

‘I felt completely wiped out, like I was­recovering from a virus,’ recalls the student from Sutton, Cambridgeshire.

A few hours later, she started experiencing intense shooting pains in her ankle; became breathless and disorientated, and her­temperature shot up.

Nicole, who was staying with her friend’s­family, was put in a cold bath to cool her down,‘but I was just getting worse’, she says.

Worried, the family called an ambulance. By the time it arrived, Nicole had started vomiting and was suffering from severe diarrhoea,­stomach spasms as well as excruciating pain in her legs; one side of her face was also paralysed.

No one knew what was the matter with her— least of all the doctor who examined her in the hospital in Cyprus, where she was on holiday.

In fact, Nicole was displaying classic­symptoms of meningitis, a potentially fatal condition.

Nicole survived— just— but, as a result of the disease, the once active teenager who loved gymnastics and dancing has lost both legs, most of her fingers, and the sight in one eye. She has also been left infertile.

Meningitis is a disease most commonly­associated with very young children.

Yet what many people don’t realise is that school children and students, aged 14 to 24, are also at high risk, with a case a day diagnosed in this group.

However, more than 10 per cent of students have never even heard of the disease, while half don’t know if they’ve been vaccinated against it, according to a recent study by the charity­Meningitis Research Foundation.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord, and can be caused by a virus or bacteria.

However,­bacterial meningitis is particularly dangerous, as this can develop into ­septicaemia, or blood poisoning, as the meningococcal ­bacteria sweep through the blood system, attacking the immune system and potentially causing organ failure.

As your body struggles to deliver enough­oxygen to all parts of the body, supply is reduced to hands and feet and the surface of the skin in order to maintain circulation to vital organs. In addition, the lungs also have to work harder. This explains the common septicaemia ­symptoms of pale skin, cold hands and feet, rapid breathing andunconsciousness.

Source