The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Chilling reminder of brush with disease
Bacteria associated with student’s tooth caused meningitis
A St Andrews student has recalled just how close she came to death, as it emerged there have been two cases of meningitis at the university.
Not that fourth year student Fiona Yelland, a survival of bacterial meningitis, needs any reminder.
She has dedicated her energy and time to warning others about the potentially deadly disease since she came perilously close to losing her own life five years ago.
The Edinburgh student, as a young ambassador for charity Meningitis Now, was among the first students to be informed of the St Andrews outbreak and is working closely with the university to provide information for concerned students, staff and parents.
In a very matter of fact way, she describes the terrifying grip meningitis had not only on her, but her entire family.
What is more shocking is the speed with which the killer disease crept up on her.
“I was heading into school with my mum at 8am but by 12pm I was on a life support machine,” she said.
For Fiona, there was no tell-tale rash. Instead, there was a sensation of pins and needles in her feet, which moved on to symptoms akin to a stroke.
Rushed to hospital by ambulance, no one quite knew the diagnosis.
It wasn’t until a week later the mystery was solved – a missing tooth which she’d knocked out some years earlier.
She had had root canal treatment and there had been abscesses but nothing too severe – yet it was bacteria associated with the tooth which had caused meningitis.
Fiona describes herself as “incredibly lucky” and, along with her mum, has raised around £7,000.
And she is grateful too for the matron who called an ambulance rather than putting it down to a migraine, giving her paracetamol and telling her to lie down.
I was heading into school with my mum at 8am but by 12pm I was on a life support machine. FIONA YELLAND