Meningitis: To Survive and Be Deaf is a Miracle

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Nancy

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URL: http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurescauses/a/meningitis.htm

To Survive and Be Deaf is a Miracle

Meningitis. Of all the common causes of hearing loss, this one is the most frightening, the most deadly. Time and again, I have read articles about families whose child became deathly ill with meningitis, pulled through, and then they found out that the child was deaf.

Statistics
How common is meningitis as a cause of hearing loss? One source of data is the Gallaudet Research Institute's Regional and National Summary of Report Data from the Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth. Nationally, the percentage with meningitis as the cause of loss was 5.9% according to the 1999-2000 survey, making it the leading post-natal cause of hearing loss. Studies have also found a possible link between light eye color and deafness resulting from meningitis. Symptoms

The symptoms of meningitis include:
Rapid, high fever
Vomiting
Headache
Spots on the body
Painful joints
Extreme weakness
Glazed, faraway eyes

It acts so quickly and can kill so quickly and is such a terrible, hair-raising experience that survival and deafness is a good outcome.

Treatment of Meningitis-Caused Hearing Loss
Many people, particularly children, who have been deafened by meningitis can be helped by cochlear implants or hearing aids. Unfortunately neither implants nor hearing aids were around to help one of the best-known victims of meningitis, the blind and deaf Helen Keller, who lost her vision and hearing to meningitis at the age of one and a half.
 
Yes, I know because it also affected my friend, too.

She lost her hearing to meningitis when she was 15 years old.

She told me sad story about her experience being hearing loss.

She collapsed with high fever and go to coma with feeding tube for 6 months. Hearing is still there when she woke up from coma. She trained to get her face movement during eat/chew/drink because of lied on the coma for long months.

Face movement goes improve then train to walk and also muscles, too. Few days after face movement, she noticed something about her ears like are sort of "dead". She was panic when she tried to hear what the nurse want to talk but it doesnt work so the nurse called the doctor.

The doctors tried everything to get hear back normal until they found out that hair are dead. She took it very badly and trained to read everyone lipreading and went to HOH school.

They test her with CI or HA but it doesn't work on her. It took her long time to accept her deafness.

She is now 35 years old married woman to HOH and have a daughter. She still speak like hearing and use sign language well.

I asked her how she feel now? She said that she do miss being hearing sometimes.
 
I suffered from ADULT meningitis a bit more than a year ago. I already had a profound hearing loss - in fact, was caused by infection caused by spacer used with my CI.

I agree that to survive an ordeal like that is a miracle. I don't remember ever feeling that badly in my entire life.

Since then, I've had a re-implantation, and so far, so good. No complications.
 
I contracted bacterial meningitis when I was 8 mos old. I was quite ill, but I was one of the lucky ones. Not only did I survive the infection, but my hearing remained intact.
 
Malfoyish said:
I agree that to survive an ordeal like that is a miracle. I don't remember ever feeling that badly in my entire life.

Since then, I've had a re-implantation, and so far, so good. No complications.
Click to expand...

:hug: Malfy. You're right. Meningitis is nothing to mess with. I still remember the day you contacted me via your cell phone, and told me you were in the hospital. That is a day I will never forget. I'm glad you are now well, and there have been no more complications with your CI.
 
I was put into the hospital in Sept. of 03 for menengitis. I didn't know what was wrong before I went, I just felt really sick for about a week. Then one day I started down the road to go to the store and I hit a bump. I felt a really sharp pain shoot through my neck, back and head. I started to see spots so I went to the emergency room. The dr. did a spinal tap and told me I had a bad case of menengitis and that if I had waited a couple of more days I could have been dead.
 
I had mengisitis spinal cord when I was 2 years old...

When it happened, my mom took me to the doctor then somehow the doctor puts me in the hospital because of high fever. They didn't know what was wrong with me at first and I had to stay at the hospital for two weeks then they found out that I had mengistis and I lost my hearing, I don't know how to walk or eat so I had to learn everything over again.

Right now.....I feel so proud to be deaf because that's God's plan for me being that way.
 
You all are very lucky to be alive. Some others don't. I had a son who had Spinal Mengistis. He was only 15 months old and had "sudden death". His neck was bend other side, don't like to go outside with Sun which hurt his eyes, not hungry, so quiet, weak which he can't walk, and can't talk much. I never forget about his illness. I never know or understand what is Mengisitis until I check up on Website and Library books. I learned about it. I sometime wish that I took him to Hospital right away. I just thought he had "fever" which mostly children have, too. In 1998 or 1999, I can't remember which one of year. I was pregnant with my daughter and went to Ped. Doctor for "interview". He was announced that Shot can protect from Mengistis and in my thought, i wished that they did done with new Shot before. So Ped doctor did shot my daughter and son for protect from Mengistis. I was felt relieved and happy to keep children alive longer.
www.musa.org
That one where i always went and read their stories from Family. Sometime they have events and information.
Mommyof3
 
I had meningitis when I was five years old. Miraculously, it only knocked out my right ear. I have normal hearing in my left ear. This is very, very rare. The doctors who examined me post-recovery wanted to publish my case. If my left ear had been damaged to the same extent that my right ear was, I would be completely, profoundly deaf with absolutely no residual hearing. And yes, I came damn close to taking an early dirt nap, despite having the best medical attention UCLA had to offer at that time.
 
hmm my husband and his brother both became deaf because of spinal meningitis. My husband was only 6 weeks old and the dr said "If you give him this shot, he will become deaf. If you don't, he will die." So they decided to have another deaf child. They already know "home" signs because of their other older son.
 
I had bacterial meningitis when I was almost 2 years old (one month shy of my 2nd birthday)....My mother thought I had the flu again when she took me to the doctor. the doctor looked at me and took my temperature...and realized it doesn't look right to be the "flu". He told her it is not the flu, but something else...so he told her not to go home but take me straight to the hospital...so she did. She found out later that I had bacterial meningitis and I had a very high fever (106 degrees at the most - they had to bring it down with ice). I stayed in the hospital for two weeks with needles in veins in my temples to get the medicine in faster, and strapped me down in the hospital bed (in the 1970s, they used to do this to patients, I don't know about now). The dr. at hospital told Mom that if I survive, I could be blind, deaf or some other condition. Well, I got out of the hospital, and then later, I gradually became deaf. I also only spoke 1 or 2 words at the time so that tells my parents another clue that I have a hearing problem....so I had speech to say more words for kids my age at the time.
I am very lucky to be alive and so do all of you. :)
 
Mommyof3 said:
You all are very lucky to be alive. Some others don't. I had a son who had Spinal Mengistis. He was only 15 months old and had "sudden death". His neck was bend other side, don't like to go outside with Sun which hurt his eyes, not hungry, so quiet, weak which he can't walk, and can't talk much. I never forget about his illness. I never know or understand what is Mengisitis until I check up on Website and Library books. I learned about it. I sometime wish that I took him to Hospital right away. I just thought he had "fever" which mostly children have, too. In 1998 or 1999, I can't remember which one of year. I was pregnant with my daughter and went to Ped. Doctor for "interview". He was announced that Shot can protect from Mengistis and in my thought, i wished that they did done with new Shot before. So Ped doctor did shot my daughter and son for protect from Mengistis. I was felt relieved and happy to keep children alive longer.
www.musa.org
That one where i always went and read their stories from Family. Sometime they have events and information.
Mommyof3
Click to expand...

I am so sorry about your loss. I had my boys vaccines against them when they were younger cuz I was so scared of them get them alike I did and it almost killed me. It killed my aunt, my mother's oldest sister when she was a baby so I knew it runs in my family cuz I got it and she got it. I don't want no more of this in my family.
 
]

To Survive and Be Deaf is a Miracle

Yes it is a miracle.

I almost did not made it when the dr told my mother to expect me to die within one hour. They gave up hope for me to survive after they lost couple children at the same time I got it.

I spend one month in hospital and had to relearn how to walk and eat. Took me few months to learn how to eat.
 
I had spinal menigitis when I was 20 months old and I almost died. They put my body in ice to bring fever down and injected 50 shots in my butt to try save my life. (That was back in 1962) I became deaf and blind in my left eye. I was in coma for two weeks. Two weeks after I came home from the hospital, I got small pox. I had to learn how to walk and talk all over again. When I came home from hospital, my parents padded furnitures all over house because I kept falling down from bad balance, but would not give up trying to walk. When I was five years old, my balance was still pretty bad, so my mom got me to take ballet lessons to help with balance. I took dancing lessons (tap, jazz, ballet and square dancing) for 13 years and it helped me a lot with balance. I eventually won as Miss Deaf Oklahoma queen because of my tap dancing skit.
 
:hug: PeachyLady, I'm sorry to hear that....

Wow, I did not know you won as Miss Deaf Oklahoma queen , that's great, hopefully see some photos of that someday ;)

I don't think I ever had menigitis before, not that I know of....
 
I understands about meningtis and is it also caused from vaccine too?

There is also cause meningitis spinal from vaccine and there have been filed a motion for malpractice medical and I've not seen that info. from the internet info. " meningitis spinal" and all the info. about this situation. Do you have any comment about it?




Nancy said:
URL: http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurescauses/a/meningitis.htm

To Survive and Be Deaf is a Miracle

Meningitis. Of all the common causes of hearing loss, this one is the most frightening, the most deadly. Time and again, I have read articles about families whose child became deathly ill with meningitis, pulled through, and then they found out that the child was deaf.

Statistics
How common is meningitis as a cause of hearing loss? One source of data is the Gallaudet Research Institute's Regional and National Summary of Report Data from the Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth. Nationally, the percentage with meningitis as the cause of loss was 5.9% according to the 1999-2000 survey, making it the leading post-natal cause of hearing loss. Studies have also found a possible link between light eye color and deafness resulting from meningitis. Symptoms

The symptoms of meningitis include:
Rapid, high fever
Vomiting
Headache
Spots on the body
Painful joints
Extreme weakness
Glazed, faraway eyes

It acts so quickly and can kill so quickly and is such a terrible, hair-raising experience that survival and deafness is a good outcome.

Treatment of Meningitis-Caused Hearing Loss
Many people, particularly children, who have been deafened by meningitis can be helped by cochlear implants or <a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=hearing%20aids" onmouseover="window.status='<a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=hearing%20aids" onmouseover="window.status='<a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=hearing%20aids" onmouseover="window.status='hearing aids'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">hearing aids</a>'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">hearing aids</a>'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">hearing aids</a>. Unfortunately neither implants nor hearing aids were around to help one of the best-known victims of meningitis, the blind and deaf Helen Keller, who lost her vision and hearing to meningitis at the age of one and a half.
Click to expand...
 
I had the HIB meningitis when i was 26 months old (Nov. 1987). Resulted in my severe to profound deafness in both ears.
 
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