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My name is Ruby and this is the story of the last 48 hours of my life.
It’s Friday 6th November at 6:30pm and I’m at my cousin’s house playing. I have a headache, but I continue to play. By 8:30pm I have a high temperature and by 9:30pm I am vomiting. At 10:15am Saturday my dad and mum take me to see a doctor in East Doc (Dr Paul Casey of 10 Balally Shopping Centre, Sandyford). There’s no rash but my whole body hurts, my headache is bad and I am still vomiting. I have not eaten anything today. The doctor sends me home thinking I have swine flu.
Later the same evening I am watching TV; I haven’t eaten anything because I am still not hungry. Myeyes are hurting and I need to turn out the lights.
It’s now 7am Sunday and I have woken up with an extreme headache, worse than before. Mum and dad can’t control my pain and I’m screaming, it’s so bad. At 10am they take me back to a doctor in East Doc (Dr Mary Tighe of Kilmacud Medical Centre, Stillorgan). The doctor thinks that it’s not swine flu but some other virus, and sends me home. As we are exiting the surgery I vomit in front of the doctor who then decides that I should go to hospital.
It is now just before midday Sunday and we are at the hospital. I’m feeling even worse – my headache is unbearable. I vomit twice more and I ask my mum to turn off the lights in the room because I have such sensitivity to them. By 6:30pm Sunday I am brain dead and on life support. I died needlessly.
The signs were there, but everybody missed them. I want parents to know what to look out for so this never happens again. There are many different types of Meningitis. The one I got showed no rashand the early signs looked like flu.
If you would like to help with Meningitis awareness you can donate to the Meningitis Research Foundation here.
What I have realised is that the health service in Ireland does not operate properly outside office hours. Consultants and other essential medical staffare not present in hospitals at the weekend and are called in only for emergencies.
In my case, by the time I saw a paediatric consultant I was brain dead. My CT scan was carried out too late!
The neurosurgeon attended when I was already brain dead, so all he could do was tell my mum and dad that there was no hope for me. Where were all these qualified people when I needed them? They were most definitely not in the hospital. They surfaced only to tell my mum and dad the bad news. I got sick with Meningitis, which is curable, except at the weekend in Ireland because of the way our health service is run. How many more people will have to suffer or die before we change the system and the people get the service they deserve ?
I have asked my mum and dad to do their best to change the system so no one else ends up like me – dead in a weekend, just before my 6th birthday.
Ruby Ayoub x