Lightning meningitis: “My daughter Audrey died in 24 hours”

“Learning of his death literally cut us off, we no longer had the strength. It’s like the sky has fallen on our heads.” In February 1999, Jimmy lost his daughter Audrey, the victim of devastating C* meningitis at just 12 years old.

“Everything happened in 24 hours. When she left our home, she was in great shape. She started to feel unwell late in the morning at school, where she was not properly taken care of” , laments the father of the family.

Meningitis: “At school, no one called us to tell us about Audrey’s condition”

Tired, slightly feverish and increasingly bothered by the light, Audrey is sent to the infirmary early in the morning. She then goes to the canteen, then, too weak to resume classes, returns to the infirmary. She then tries to play sports with her friends, without success. “She remained sitting against a wall. So the teachers once again took her to the infirmary, then let her go home alone by bus. No one from her establishment called us to inform us of her condition “, deplores Jimmy.

Once home, the young girl goes up to bed in her room, with the shutters closed. “It surprised us, but since we were in the middle of a flu epidemic, we thought it was it, and we made an appointment with our family doctor for the next morning. My wife saw a few small spots purplish on Audrey’s body, but unfortunately she did not make the connection with meningitis”, says the stained glass artist.

When her parents tried to wake her up the next morning, the teenager had already slipped into a deep coma. She died a few hours later in hospital. “Our GP arrived very quickly and immediately saw that it was meningitis. He therefore very quickly called the firefighters, but it was too late,” regrets Jimmy.

Meningitis: “25 years later, it’s still there, we don’t forget”

Even today, Jimmy’s emotion is vivid when he talks about the tragic disappearance of his daughter, whose death also traumatized other members of the family. “Audrey’s older sister managed to gain the upper hand, but her little brother suddenly stopped working at school. He one day ended up telling a nurse that he no longer wanted to progress because he didn’t want to grow up and die like his sister”, remembers the sixty-year-old.

“25 years later, it’s still there, we don’t forget. Personally, I also felt injustice and anger towards the director of the college, who didn’t show herself at all listened to us and did not report honestly on the course of events”, adds Jimmy. “She made some pretty serious mistakes regarding our file and was subsequently transferred. For example, we learned through the investigation carried out by the gendarmerie following the complaint that my wife and I had filed that the space at the college called the “infirmary” was in fact only a rest room. where a laundry worker in a white coat worked. The real school nurse was really only there half a day a week and was in charge of 17 establishments at a time.” he indicates.

From the death of his daughter will be born the Audrey patients association. “We finally decided with the Maine-et-Loire prosecutor not to pursue the investigation, but in exchange, we asked the authorities and National Education to help us create an association. She saw the day one year after the start of our efforts”, reports the activist. “We first wanted to pay tribute to our lost daughter and continue to keep her alive among us. We also wanted to provide information on meningitis and vaccination with the help of health professionals, because if we had been better informed about this disease , Audrey would still be in this world”, he believes.

Meningitis: what symptoms should alert you?

In 2023, 560 cases of meningitis were reported in France, an increase of 72% compared to 2022. Among them, 44% were linked to serogroup B, 29% to serogroup W and 24% to serogroup Y.

The symptoms of meningitis combine a sometimes high fever with chills. Other manifestations of the disease may also appear, such as:

– intense headaches (headaches);

– an intolerance to light (photophobia) or noise (phonophobia);

– nausea or vomiting;

– neck stiffness (the back of the neck is painful when moving);

– a gray or mottled complexion (purplish spots);

– significant aches;

– great fatigue;

– neurological symptoms (drowsiness, confusion, ocular paralysis, convulsions).

“If you identify one or more of these symptoms on yourself or on a member of your entourage, you must react as quickly as possible. In fact, the earlier meningitis is caught, the greater the chances of coming out of it without after-effects. are great. The first 5 hours are the most important. Jimmy insists.

“I also invite you to quickly call your attending physician, so that he can contact the firefighters or the Samu himself to speed up the treatment process. If you go directly to the emergency room, the provision of care can be effect be very long and thus lead to death Just at the beginning of the year, a person died of meningitis on a stretcher. he recalls.

“When you call the doctor for potential meningitis, you should also not hesitate to dramatize the symptoms observed. Because as there are very few cases, general practitioners do not think about it systematically and can miss it, which this also delays treatment”, he also recommends.

Expanding vaccination against meningitis: “We are very happy”

Finally, what does he think of the recent expansion desired by the HAS (High Authority of Health) of vaccination against meningitis? “We have been fighting for 25 years to include meningococci A, B, W and Y, so we are very happy with this progress, it is a big step forward for prevention!”, she congratulates Jimmy. “We just hope that the injection will be reimbursed immediately, because the HAS is still unclear on this point. We would also like vaccination against meningitis to be compulsory for adolescents,” Jimmy concludes.

*There are five types of meningitis.

*In France, vaccination against meningitis is currently only compulsory for children under one year of age for group C meningococci.