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When their little boy, Jonah, was five months old, Kelly Cheung and her husband discovered that he had meningitis…
At the time, doctors told the couple that their young son only had a 25% chance of a full recovery.
Thankfully, just last week, a thoroughly healthy Jonah started senior infants at the local Gaelscoil.
An acute inflammation of the protective membranes covered the brain and spinal chord, for most people, meningitis was assumed to be a medical condition that had long vanished from the planet, a Dickensian infection no longer a threat in the modern age. Incredibly, there are over 200 cases a year of menigitis and septicaemia diagnosed in Ireland alone.
As part of Meningitis Awarness Week, Greystones mum Kelly has been sharing her experience, in the hope that other parents will recognise the crucial signs – fever, cold hands & feet, vomitting, difficult to wake, confusion, pale, blotchy skin, etc – early on.