How Sharon recovered from meningitis attack

How Sharon recovered from meningitis attack

12 September 2012

A BALLYGOWAN mum is hoping to help raise awareness about meningitis after she almost lost her life to the disease two years ago.

Mother of two Sharon Fallon, who made an incredible recovery from meningitis in 2010, is hoping her story will improve awareness of the illness during Meningitis Awareness Week next week.

Sharon said she did not realise she was ill when she first suffered from a sore head and ear while in work in March of that year.

Although she remembers telling colleagues that she felt like her head was “going to explode”, she carried on in work for the rest of the day before collecting her two sons from her mum’s house as part of her regular evening routine.

Sharon’s condition deteriorated during the night when she started to vomit and at that stage she said she thought she had the same sickness bug that a work colleague had.

“Looking back I was groggy the next morning and can vaguely remember saying goodbye to my boys.

“My last memory is lying down with a blanket thinking that I needed to sleep the sickness off.

“My husband came home at lunchtime to find me unconscious.

“I was rushed into the Ulster Hospital where a lumbar puncture diagnosed Pneumococcal Bacterial Meningitis.”

At that time, Sharon was transferred to Altnagelvin Hospital where she spent five days on life support. She said her husband was asked to turn her life support machine off after she went into full organ failure, but he refused to give up hope.

“I eventually came out of the induced coma and spent a further two weeks recovering in hospital,” she said.

Although Sharon fought hard for her physical recovery, she said her emotional recovery took much longer.

“Because I had time to think about what I had actually been through and how devastated my family had been, I found the emotional recovery longer and harder to accept,” she said.

“I kept thinking that I should have died, especially after being told that if my husband hadn’t found me when he did, I would have been dead within a few hours.”

After 10 months of recuperation, Sharon was able to return to work and said that although she suffers from headaches and forgetfulness, she has not suffered any permanent brain, eye, or hearing damage.

Since her experience, she said she now lives each day like it is her last and has taken up running, joined a gym and taken up surfing lessons.

“My whole attitude to life has changed. Some people have told me I’m a different person but I think I have come out of this experience with an open mind and a zest for living life to the full,” she said.

“My sincere thanks goes to my husband Stephen, my family for their support and of course the medical staff that kept me alive”.

Sharon found support from the Meningitis Research Foundation in Belfast after her illness and throughout her recovery.