Features

Positive Relationships: Meningitis - In the balance

A real-life case of infant meningitis told to Annette Rawstrone highlights how unpredictable and alarming the symptoms can be, and why nurseries need to have procedures in place.

Isabella Troiano's first Christmas was memorable for all the wrong reasons - she was fighting for her life.

'Isabella woke in the early hours of the Sunday before Christmas and didn't seem herself, but I put it down to teething. I just gave her some Calpol and put her back to bed,' says her mother, Gemma Allen-Troiano, from Dursley in Gloucestershire.

'I awoke at 10.30am to realise she hadn't stirred, which wasn't normal. She was drowsy and grumpy and curling herself up into the foetal position so I decided to take her to the doctor.'

He ran some tests and said to continue giving Isabella Calpol and fluids if possible. But the next day she had worsened, so Gemma took her to hospital. 'It was her high-pitched cry that alerted me that something was seriously wrong - it was horrendous, she was wailing like a banshee.'

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