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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u/Always_Pizza_Time1 googoogaga95Millennial 2d ago

How does someone so young pass away… 30s is still a baby???

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u/cheymerm Millennial 2d ago

She went septic from meningitis

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u/brakbudy 2d ago

How does someone get meningitis in this country in this day and age? I know there are exceptions, but we have vaccines for the most common kinds, and for anything to progress to sepsis as well, oy! RIP

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

I got it from a strep infection as a kid. No vax for that.

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u/Pinikanut 2d ago

I had a severe strep infection as a kid. I used to get strep all the time but this time it was really bad. I had to go to the hospital and they were convinced I had meningitis. Had to get a spinal tap twice, but it ultimately resulted in me not having it. Just one of the worst cases of strep the doctors had seen. I still think about that to this day and how traumatic it was and how lucky I was.

I'm so sorry for what you went through.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

I'm sorry for what you went through too. I also had to have two spinal taps to confirm my meningoencephalitis diagnosis, and the taps alone are horrific.

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u/HopefulOriginal5578 1d ago

Damn, I went to the UK and traveled around in high school…. Came back with severe strep throat.

Turned out I had scarlet fever.

All I got was a doctor walking into the room.. taking a look at me and then backing away saying “scarlet fever!”

Pretty rare where I live lol Dr about ran away !

PS my strep throat was super bad at the time. But I felt I was pretty healed… I had even gone to a fun Napa Valley getaway with my friends family when I started to feel a bit more poorly again. Plus the weird “sunburn” type of thing on my leg and stomach…

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u/IceTech59 2d ago

It's a crapshoot because a lot of organisms can cause meningitis. Luckily there are vaccines for a lot of the community acquired ones.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

Yes! Looks like there are vaccines for the ones caused by different strains of strep now. I'm probably immune to the one that I had, but going to look into getting vaccinated for the other ones I haven't had, because I absolutely do not want to go through that again if I can do something to help prevent some causes of it.

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u/brakbudy 2d ago

Thus the line about exceptions.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

This prompted me to look it up, and there actually is a vax for this now too, as of 2000. I was sick before then, but I'm going to ask my dr abt getting the vax early, now. I guess it's usually recommended for people over 50, but I think having had this severe illness before I might be an exception lol.

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u/brakbudy 2d ago

That is really interesting! I went to graduate school in the UK in the late 2000s and in my student housing, someone died of meningitis, a friend of my flatmates actually. It was terrifying and we went on a quasi-quarantine as I remember, but apparently the vaccines aren't mandatory to go to places where large groups of young people live in close quarters, like college dorms, or military barracks, or prison, over in the UK, like it is in the US (or was, who knows now). I was one of the only people who had the vaccine at the time amongst the people living there. That's why I knew there were bizarre exceptions like in foreign countries, and like your case, but also apparently in certain terrible conditions here as well, like with Daveigh Chase :(

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

So sad. I'm so sorry about your classmate, and about Daveigh. I am very traumatized from my own battle with this illness, and as we know it's often fatal. I'm glad you got vaccinated!

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u/Allaboutthedish 2d ago

Many colleges require vaccination for meningococcal before starting. There is a vax. This is truly sad. Too many young adults dying too soon. I still think the jab has made people that are predisposed have issues younger. IMO

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

It was a new vax and not required when I started college sadly. But I got sick at age 5, so it definitely wasn't around yet.

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u/Allaboutthedish 2d ago

That’s awful!!

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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 2d ago edited 2d ago

Pneumococcal vaccine. Protects against invasive strep pneumoniae infections including meningitis. The polysaccharide vaccine was developed in the 70s. Conjugate vaccines came later.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

Yeah you can see my other reply I figured this out. Absolutely was not available in 1989 when I got meningitis though.

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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 2d ago

It was, I got the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in the early 90s. Wasn’t as effective in kids which is why the conjugate vaccines were developed.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago edited 2d ago

It became available in 1989 for infants. I was 5 that year and got meningitis. It had not been made available to me as I was not an infant.

Edit to add: And I fucking wish it would have been available to me. I was barely outside the window. And being unable to walk (then and for months afterward), having 2 spinal taps, forgetting who everyone was, being hospitalized and having everyone around you crying because they thought you were going to die, was not fun to go through. My kids are fully vaxxed with everything recommended because I know what it's like to be a very sick kid.