Surviving dreaded L Mono
● “I can’t even feed myself now — my hand shakes so badly the food flies off my spoon.”
With South Africa’s listeriosis outbreak having claimed the lives of at least 183 people since January last year, and the death rate sitting at 27%, 75-year-old Eileen Drever is considered lucky to have survived.
But the widow has gone from living alone, and unassisted, in a retirement complex apartment, and driving a car, to being cared for in the complex’s frail-care facility.
“I’ve completely lost my balance,” she said. “I want to get up out of this wheelchair, but a few times when I’ve tried to walk I’ve fallen.”
The deadly food-borne bacteria Listeria monocytogenes — referred to by scientists as L Mono — took Drever down fast.
Three days after Christmas, she woke up in her flat in Queensburgh, southwest of Durban, feeling normal.
During the morning she started feeling “fluey” — feverish and achy. It didn’t alarm her, but her younger sister, Rose Andrew, knew something was wrong when she received garbled WhatsApp texts from her.
“I raced over to her flat and found someone I barely recognised,” she said.
By the time paramedics arrived, Drever’s body was “absolutely rigid”, Andrew said. “They had to force her down into a wheelchair.”
Doctors at Westville Hospital suspected a stroke, but a brain scan ruled that out.
“Then she started having seizures,” Andrew said. “We were terrified.”
A lumbar puncture confirmed that Drever had meningitis, one of five forms listeriosis takes, and a blood test confirmed it
Health officials had removed some leftover ham in her fridge, Andrew said.
Drever spent 21 days in intensive care, followed by two weeks in a general ward, having physiotherapy twice a day. She was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital where she stayed for a month.
Drever has made peace with having to sell her car, but she’s determined not to give up her flat just yet. Doctors have estimated that her recovery could take up to six months.