'We thought it was gastro': Teen fights for life after contracting meningococcal
Friends of a South Australian teen thought he was struck down by gastro when he developed diarrhoea and vomiting last weekend.
Days later, Branden Bowden, 19, was placed in intensive care and left fighting for his life after contracting meningococcal disease.
His mother Kerrie has warned others to know all the possible symptoms of meningococcal.
“Everyone assumed (Branden) had gastro. He then became really agitated, irrational… he was delirious,” Kerrie said.
“Whilst (doctors) straight away acted that it could be an infection on the brain, they also pointed out they thought he was on drugs.”
Mrs Bowden said she raced to be by her son’s side after the teen chef’s headache turned into vomiting within 24 hours.
When Mrs Bowden arrived in Mount Gambier, she knew something was wrong with her son and drove him to hospital.
Doctors gave Brandon two doses of antibiotics before he was flown to Adelaide in a critical condition on Tuesday.
Mrs Bowden said her son didn’t have a rash when she took him to hospital and never suspected meningococcal was the cause.
“We didn’t even know that any of these symptoms were part of meningococcal. He didn’t even have a rash at that stage,” she said.
Mr Bowden was diagnosed with the B-strain of the virus, which is the same type that claimed the life of Adelaide toddler Charlie Mason in early November.
The teen remains in an induced coma at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
He is the fourth person in two days to be diagnosed with meningococcal in South Australia.
Three other people; an 18-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 71-year-old man, are also in hospital in stable conditions.
Two of the trio are confirmed to have the B-strain but authorities say their cases are unrelated.
Top news stories - November 17
