Karen Rayfield contacted Home Truths about her son, George who survived very serious meningitis, but has suffered memory loss ever since.
 George's Christmas recreated in January: George, Santa (David May), George's step-father, Karen |
Christmas 2000 Karen's son George became very ill. When his temperature hit 40 degrees, Karen called in a doctor who informed her that George had flu and she should stop worrying.
But on Christmas Eve George started screaming with pain. Karen took him to the hospital where they told her she was wasting her time and would she go home and enjoy her Christmas. The problem was that, although George had symptoms, he was very well compared to other children.
On Christmas day George began vomiting violently and Karen called the doctor again. This time the doctor took one look at him and called an ambulance. "All my guests were arriving for Christmas day and we were walking out with this poor little boy".
But at the hospital they were still unsure whether George had meningitis - he didn't have the classic symptom of aversion to light. They decided to do a lumber puncture - an injection into the spinal column to extract fluid. The doctor said that the fluid was cloudy and concluded that George did have meningitis. In the end, George was in hospital for five days.
In the meantime, they had all missed out on Christmas. So Karen recreated Christmas for George. She even went as far as contacting the Rotary Club who came round with the sleigh and tree. One of their members, David May, even dressed as Father Christmas.
Some months ago, however, Karen noticed a worrying development. At 8 years old, George had forgotten how to write his name - a humiliating experience for him. Karen believes that George's memory was affected by his meningitis. "He will forget that it's Christmas. I'm probably the only parent that can put their child to bed fairly early on Christmas eve and have a good nights sleep and not wake up early".
Clearly in the long term this will be an even greater disadvantage for George. Karen is keen to find out what she can do to help him to cope. Although George's school is incredibly supportive, Karen is concerned about George's employment prospects. She says, "Who's going to employ somebody who can't remember things and can't concentrate".
Doctors have never said that there is an identifiable link between George's meningitis and his memory loss. An additional problem is that there is very little research into the after effects of meningitis on both children and adults, and there are no support groups. Karen would like to find out how other people have coped with the after effects.
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