A university student who thought she had Covid-19 was rushed to hospital with a deadly infection. She was hospitalised within five hours of experiencing symptoms.
Alice Jenkins began complaining of aching limbs and a temperature after waking up on May 18. The 19-year-old assumed her symptoms meant she had caught coronavirus as her flatmates had had it a week earlier.
The Politics, Philosophy and Economics [PPE] student had planned to go clubbing with her friends that evening, but decided to sleep all day instead. Alice had initially thought the muscle pain was because she fell over while playing netball a few days before, but when she woke up from a nap she was sweating and had a rash.
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It wasn't until she shared her symptoms with her mum, Sarah, that she realised her pains were not Covid-related at all. Her mum told her to do a "tumbler test", which involves pressing a glass against the rash to see if it disappeared.
When it didn't, she told Alice to dial 999. Sarah, who serves as a magistrate, is familiar with the signs of meningitis as a neighbour's daughter had died of it at the age of 14.
Her quick-thinking meant Alice was able to get medical treatment immediately and suffered no lasting damage. When treatment is delayed, some people end up with hearing loss, paralysis or brain damage from the illness, Mirror reports.
Alice was taken to Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where she became so ill she was unconscious. Within 24 hours she was aware of medics around her talking about paralysis, but both parents rushed to be with her.
She was taken to the infectious disease unit at the Western General Hospital the following day, which she described as being like out of American Horror Story.
After responding to treatment, Alice was discharged on May 24 and she experienced a slight headache afterwards, and will need a hearing test in a month.
The student is now on holiday in Croatia and says she believes her mum's quick thinking saved her life. The pair want to make other young people aware of the risks of the deadly illness, which Alice caught four months after her vaccination expired and which particularly impacts teenagers.
Alice said: "If I hadn't have had the rash I wouldn't have gone into hospital, all I had was aching limbs and a temperature. The week before my flatmates had Covid, the typical symptoms of meningitis like a stiff neck and being sick didn't start until I was in hospital.
"When I got into hospital they put me on antibiotics, steroids and antivirals, without knowing what it was. I was really scared to go to A&E, I woke up that night with a rash and Facetimed my mum who was saying 'phone 999'. I was saying 'I don't want to', but a friend did it for me."
Alice added: "It was probably easier for me because I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't Google it so I didn't know how dangerous it is."
A lumber puncture test diagnosed meningococcal group B, which Alice had been vaccinated against when she was around 14. She urged other young people to check whether their vaccinations had expired and to book a booster if they had, as hers ran out in January.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the brain which can be spread by kissing, sneezing and coughing, but Alice says she had no idea where she could have got it from.
Nobody else in her halls or that she knows became ill with it, but she described the reaction of her friends' parents as "petrified" when they found out about it.
She said: "I didn't have a headache until I got into hospital, or a stiff neck, or throwing up. When they did a lumber puncture they said I could be paralysed or get septicemia, or lose fingers or toes, or get hearing loss, or brain damage. They had to keep me away from people because meningitis is contagious, it was pretty lonely but I had a Percy Pig toy with me. Because I slept so much it was less lonely."
Her dad Richard, 58, cut short a cycling holiday in Italy to visit her and her mum got the first train to Edinburgh from Surrey. Alice said: "I didn't even kiss anyone - but I'm thankful it didn't happen on holiday. I was meant to be going to Marbella but that got cancelled but the doctors didn't think I'd be well enough to go to Croatia either.
"It is scary - I was planning to go clubbing on the Wednesday but I woke up and didn't feel that well, and within five hours I was in hospital. We are more aware as a family because we know someone who died from it, but we didn't know vaccination expires.
"My chances were one in 10, but I feel completely myself now."
