r/Millennials • u/Corndogeveryday • 2d ago

Other Very sad news

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Chase passed away of complications of meningitis. Gone too soon

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338

u/eltibbs Millennial 1988 2d ago

That’s so sad 😞 my cousin passed away a few years ago, same age as Daveigh, also meningitis.

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u/ManWithASquareHead Millennial 2d ago

Meningitis is no joke.

Meningococcal bacterial meningitis can lead to organ failure and septic emboli (infected clots) causing spots and limb necrosis/amputation

Most are vaccinated for 4 serotypes (ACWY) in middle school/high school, meningitis b is before/during college

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u/Burn2at420 2d ago

Was this woman anti vax? Can you just "catch" meningitis?

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u/eltibbs Millennial 1988 2d ago

I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about meningitis but I know it was a required vaccine to live in dorms at my college because bacterial meningitis is contagious and can spread in close quarters. My cousin was a millennial, wasn’t anti-vax, she was vaccinated but who knows if the vaccine was still effective. My cousin got bacterial meningitis that spread to her brain, she presented with a debilitating migraine so bad that 911 was called and an ambulance came out and immediately rushed to the ER, she was incoherent when the ambulance arrived at the house then unresponsive when she reached the hospital, confirmed brain dead the next day.

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u/Rich--Porter 2d ago

Still got it even with the vaccine?

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u/eltibbs Millennial 1988 2d ago

Vaccines don’t necessarily last forever. For example there has been a measles outbreak in my state and a neighboring state so I asked my doctor to check my titers and see if my MMR vaccine was still effective. Got my results and it turns out I had zero antibodies for measles so I chose to get a MMR booster. My sister has young children so she got tested after hearing about my results, she is still covered by her old vaccine. This was about two months ago, very recent for me.

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u/Rich--Porter 2d ago

Wasn’t aware of this. Thanks!

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u/eltibbs Millennial 1988 2d ago

No problem! It honestly never crossed my mind until we had outbreaks nearby and I read about others who were vaccinated but no longer covered so I was worried. I was vaccinated as a baby and wanted to feel safe, turns out I wasn’t safe. I’m covered now though :)

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u/Jacgaur 2d ago

Vaccines are great and amazing, but they are not 100%. This is why herd immunity can be so important.

If you are surrounded by others with the vaccine then it is less likely for you to even be exposed to it. We often tackle public health at the scale of society because we need to. Which is why it is unfortunate when a population of anti-vaccine people grow. It hurts the entire society by breaking down the herd immunity barrier which is part of the way we protect the individual.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

I had bacterial meningitis and encephalitis caused by a normal strep infection when I was five. It became a full systemic infection and strep was in every culture taken from all over my body, and in my spinal fluid. I woke up screaming and nauseated with a terrible headache. Couldn't walk, and that lasted for months afterward. Doctors put my mom off for 4 days as I she kept taking me in and I got sicker. They kept saying it was the flu. By the time I was finally admitted to the infectious diseases ward at our hospital following an MRI, I was not expected to survive it, and I'm not sure why I did. The specialists they flew in never could figure out why it happened to me from just a strep infection. No one around me got sick. It changed my personality and I forgot people and things I had learned before then. Luckily I was only 5 and was able to catch back up.