One of the scariest things that can happen to somebody is getting a type of strange disease that they know nothing about, because you will have no idea how to treat it and what to expect.
Being infected with a strange illness is also very dangerous because you may think that the illness is some other more common and less dangerous ailment, and ignore it until the condition because so bad that your life is at risk.
This may seem like a very rare and impossible situation, but it happens to millions of people around our nation every year, and it did to four year old Jazmyn Parkyn who woke up one morning with burning skin.
It all started in the middle of the night when Jazmyn’s parents couldn’t get Jazmyn to stop screaming and go to bed. She had a very high fever, so they tried to bring that down and lull her back to bed.
Her parents initially thought that whatever Jazmyn had contracted, it was flu related because their family had recently gone through a fight with that illness.
Little did they know the germ that lied behind what Jazmyn was suffering.
When Jazmyn woke up in the morning, her skin was on fire. She didn’t let anybody touch her skin or she would scream in unbearable pain. Jazmyn’s mother thought that whatever Jazmyn had, her skin condition was most likely a heat rash, but she brought her to the doctors just in case something else was wrong.
Jazmyn was first brought to her general pediatrician who saw the tiny bruise like spot on her chest, and told them to go to Paringa District Hospital. There, Jazmyn’s fever worsened to soaring above 40 degrees C, and she suffered a seizure.
It was at this point when doctors diagnosed her with meningococcal B and sent her to Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Jazmyn had started with just a few spots on her body, and by the end of the day at 10 pm was covered in icky blotches taking over her skin.
Doctors gave her antibiotics, but also had to do some serious surgeries on her to make sure the disease was not going to come back.
Surgeons had to perform 15 skin grafts on her legs, scooping out major parts of flesh to prevent the infection from coming back.
After being in intensive care for quite a while, doctors noticed that the antibiotics started to work, so they moved Jazmyn to another ward to start the recovery process.
It took her almost four weeks, but she finally beat the disease and was able to escape with her life, minor nerve damage, and scarring on her legs from where the surgery was performed.
In Australia where Jazmyn lives, there is no requirement for the Meningitis B vaccine, as it needs to be paid for privately.
Jazmyn’s parents want to make sure that this vaccine will be available to the public regularly and doesn’t need private funding, because if they knew, they would have gotten it without second thought.
Are you vaccinated for Meningitis B? Check with your doctor today, it could save your life.
