ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Kane

My son Kane became ill on January 1st 1999. At the time he was nine years old. I called him home at lunchtime, as he had been around his friend's house playing. He didn't eat his lunch saying that he felt a bit sick and that he had a headache. He had a raised temperature of 102. I gave him some paracetamol and he lay down on the sofa. By 7.00pm Kane began to vomit profusely and said he had a really bad headache. All through the night he quietly moaned and groaned about his headache and vomited frequently. The more I offered fluid the more he began to vomit, so I could do nothing to help him with his pain all I could do was to keep sponging him down with tepid water in an attempt to keep his temperature down.

In the morning he was no better and was complaining the room was too bright and hurting his eyes, so we drew the curtains. Kane said that his neck was stiff but his headache was the worst. I called the Doctor at this point as I was extremely anxious that he might have developed Meningitis. The doctor came, gave him a brief examination and diagnosed gastro-enteritis. I wasn't convinced and queried him about the other symptoms of his severe headache, stiff neck and aversion to light. The doctor just said "your son has a virus" and there is nothing he could do except to advise the care that I had been doing for my son already, even though I explained that my son had not been able to sustain any fluids or analgesia for 72hrs.

I looked after my son again for a very worried second night he still vomited frequ ently only this time he hardly bothered to open his eyes. He would just groan on and on about how much the headache bothered him. The next morning 3rd January 1999 he remained asleep till I awoke him at 10.00 am his eyes were rolling around and when he tried to speak it didn't make sense. He would say things like "go in the kitchen and make sure the magnet still works" and" I don't want to go in the race because my horse doesn't want to go in the race." So I again called the Doctor and explained all his symptoms in great detail, but to my amazement he didn't feel the need to come and visit my son. He just told me to keep forcing the fluids inspite of the vomiting and to try and give him nurophen as well as paracetamol.

By the next day 4th January 1999 my son was very drowsy, hardly able to respond to any questions, if he did open his eyes they were rolling around, but I had noticed his left eye had remained fairly stable but turned in towards his nose. Having lost faith with our Doctors, my husband and I decided to take Kane to our local hospital's emergency department. He was admitted immediately and put on an IVI drip as he was extremely dehydrated and was observed over night.

The next morning he was visited by the paediatric consultant while I had popped home to fetch some belongings. My mother had stayed with him in the mean time. When I came back she told me that the doctors had come around and seen him but she was concerned because all the time they had examined him they had not been able to wake him. They told her that a surgeon would call round soon to examine him and sure enough he called round and did a thorough examination of Kane's tummy and said everything was as it should be and that he wouldn't be taking out his appendix.

I noticed that Kane had not flinched in all the time he had been examined. When the surgeon left I tried to wake him by gently shaking him.... nothing, so I tried a few more times and lifted his eyelids but he was well and truly 'out for the count'. When a young nurse came in to ask if we would like a cup of tea, I told her that I was concerned at how long Kane had been asleep and that he had this awful squint. She said that she had never seen Kane with his eyes open in all the time she had been on duty and asked did Kane wear glasses for this squint normally. I told her Kane had never had a squint before in his life and did not need to wear glasses.

It was at this point she left the room to inform the doctors who then descended upon the room in mass. I can only describe what they did as the most horrific experience of my life as I stood there watching. They pulled back the sheets and started to pull his unconscious body this way and that then hitting him all over with their reflex hammers to which it was quite obvious he had absolutely NO reflexes. He had lost so much weight that he looked like he had come out of a concentration camp. They sent the head consultant to see us a short while after their examination and after yet another blood test. He gently explained that they believed that my son was indeed suffering from a virus that had caused some pressure inside his head. I asked what the medical term was for this pressure and he told me it was known as Encephalitis He went on to say that they would need to do a MRI brain scan to confirm the diagnosis and to rule out a brain tumor or cancer. The scan confirmed that Kane had Temporal Menigo-Encephalitis.

Over the next few days Kane came out of his deep irresistible sleep, managing to stay awake for up to 20 minutes at a time then having to sleep for a few hours totally exhausted. After a week we were able to bring him home. He was a very different little boy hardly able to put more than two or three words together and never speaking unless it was to answer a question. He looked an awful lot like our son but he didn't act like him one bit. He was so quite and tired. Over the next three weeks his vocabulary slowly came back and I drew pictures of animals on cards and ask him what they were. Then I'd line them up and remove one so he would have to remember which one was missing.

After six weeks we re-introduced him to school on a mornings only basis as he would still get so tired and need to sleep. However even though I was worried about school being too much for him so soon, it seemed that his personality came streaming back with in a few days of his return the difference was unbelievable. His teachers have commented that his concentration has taken a nose dive and we are arranging some extra help with regard to his schooling.

But now just over four months on I can say that we are very lucky people Kane is almost as good as new there is a marked difference in him in that he seems to be far more easily irritated than before and he is more emotional, but just as loveable!

I do worry about the future for him and what this illness has done to his brain. But we still have him with us today, and for that we have truly been blessed.

I would be happy for anyone to contact me who has been touched by encephalitis.

Amanda
Buckinghamshire, England

Updated July 4, 2000

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