Newstalk host Claire Byrne contracted bacterial meningitis in her early teenage years and she told Anton Savage about her experience.
The medical condition Meningitis has been all over the news this week, after an outbreak in Kent in the UK claimed the lives of two with 27 cases confirmed.
Newstalk host Claire Byrne contracted bacterial meningitis in her early teenage years and she told Anton Savage about her experience.
Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, the meninges.
Anyone can contract the disease but it is most commonly found in babies, young children, teenagers and young adults.
A patient’s condition can deteriorate very rapidly if they are not diagnosed in a timely manner.
Currently, a number of vaccines effectively protect from meningitis.
Claire Byrne's experience with meningitis
Presenter Claire Byrne has said hearing all the stories about meningitis this week brought back memories of her own experiences contracting the disease when she was 14 years old.
“I was so out of it”, she said.
“I was so unwell but it’s the experience my parents had that I think about more than the experience. It was dreadful for them.”
She explained that she first felt flu-like symptoms, and “an indescribable headache”.
“The words start to move on the page”, she told Newtalk Breakfast.
“If you think about it, the lining of your brain is swelling. You can imagine the pressure and the pain - it’s hard to move your neck.”
She explained that after she was brought home and waiting for the doctor to arrive, her mother told a family friend she may have meningitis.
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“She saw how sick I was and she knew there was something badly wrong here.
“The doctor was delayed coming out to me, which was a good thing, because when he did get to me, I was sick enough for him to realise that this was probably meningitis, but I wasn't sick enough for it to be too late.
“ I didn't have the rash, which indicates sepsis. But he asked me if I could stand up and I remember collapsing.”
Ms Byrne told Anton Savage she was in and out of consciousness for most of the day and felt better the next day.
However, on the eve, her situation had deteriorated to the point where she was given the last rites by the hospital priest.
“I remember seeing my parents kneeling beside the bed and I remember the oils going on my forehead. I remember the words being spoken.
“I was so sick that I wasn't alert enough to be scared. You know, I was very much at peace with it. I was also hallucinating.
"I saw frogs in the sink. I saw a picture of my family up on the wall of the hospital, which didn't exist.
“Now, whether that was me going down the tunnel or just hallucinating, I don't know.”
She described how she was rushed to Cherry Orchard and her mother did everything in her power to keep her from falling asleep or losing consciousness.
“I remember not being able to stretch my neck because the swelling was coming down.
“My sister was training to be a nurse in the UK at the time. She came home and slept on the floor of that hospital with me for two weeks.
“The doctor said to me, if it doesn't get you at the moment, you're OK. I was very fortunate.”
Meningitis can cause long-term issues such as hearing loss, sight loss, brain damage or even limb loss due to sepsis.
Claire Byrne told Newstalk she experienced intense fatigue in the two years after she was healed from meningitis.
She stressed the quick importance of symptoms and how her general practitioner's reactiveness made all the difference.
Main Image: The Claire Byrne Show presenter Claire Byrne.
