'Don't ignore illness' says man who beat meningitis

Six years ago this December the outcome could have been very different for Mullingar man Todd Nugent if a quick thinking medic at Midoc hadn't told him to go straight to casualty after he heard his symptoms over the phone.For more than a week the retired call centre worker, who lives at Chestnut Grove had been having on and off headaches which could not be dulled by pain killers and more worryingly he had begun vomiting which was very unusual for him.This year people have an extra worry after six-year old Ruby Ayoub was misdiagnosed with Swine Flu which wasted valuable time in treating the meningitis which was to kill her.Todd Nugent spent five weeks in hospital after he was diagnosed with a type of bacterial meningitis which can be lethal and says that his symptoms were similar to those felt by flu victims."I had been out to eat in Mullingar a few days before I got sick and at the start I thought that it may have been the food but then I realised that I had been eating in the same place for years and had never had a bad bite and so it couldn't have been that," said Todd."I would say that the difference was that the symptoms I had didn't go away and that they were a lot more severe than, say, a headache I would normally have had. Also when I began to throw up I knew that something strange was going on because I was never normally sick like that even when I was unwell."I had been unwell all that week and by Friday night my headache was blinding, it was really severe and it was at that point I called Midoc.When I told them the symptoms he told me to go straight to casualty and that's what I did."I was then admitted to hospital and the next day an MRI scan confirmed that I had meningitis and a second confirmed that it was Listeria Meningitis - of which there are only three cases in Ireland every year."In all I was in hospital for five weeks and then I spent a further two weeks in rehab at St Mary's because I wasn't coping well after I was discharged and had been having problems with my balance."I think that the symptoms of Swine Flu do seem worryingly similar to those that I got with meningitis."With the flu you would get a bad headache and you could vomit as well so it is an extra worry for people who are already fearful about Swine Flu."I didn't get a rash at any stage which is something that people are told to look out for.The case with that little girl is tragic and I would say to anybody who is at all worried to not take any chances and speak to your doctor as soon as possible. They will tell you what you should do next.