An Essex woman who twice contracted bacterial meningitis admits she “didn’t know if I was going to make it or not” after initially dismissing her symptoms.
Hannah Ewing, 26, began experiencing vomiting and diarrhoea in November 2024, and believed she had food poisoning.
However, when the symptoms lingered and signs of delirium appeared, her concerned fiancé took her to hospital where she spent eight days in a medically induced coma as doctors determined she had meningitis.
The illness left her deaf in her left ear and needing a hearing aid for her right, needing to relearn how to walk after a nerve was caught during a lumbar puncture, and experiencing post-traumatic stress from the “really scary dreams and thoughts” during her delirium.
Hannah said the news of a bacterial meningitis outbreak in Kent has left her fearful.
“I think if I weren’t with my fiancé when I got ill, I would have died,” Hannah said.
“I just think, if you have any symptoms – regardless of if you think it’s just a little bug or anything like that – just tell someone, so someone’s aware, because it happens so quickly.
“It was a space of 24 hours from when I thought I just had food poisoning to me being blue-lighted into the hospital.”
Hannah was at home with her fiancé in Harlow, Essex, when she began experiencing severe vomiting and diarrhoea on November 3, 2024. Believing she had food poisoning, she stayed in bed for two days, but vomited so much she couldn’t eat or drink and was bringing up bile.
Her fiancé, Ryan, who was monitoring her, later told her that he became very worried when she started to show signs of delirium on the evening of November 4, “talking to him in gibberish” and behaving erratically.
Hannah does not remember anything about what happened to her.
Ryan called NHS 111, who arranged for an ambulance in the early hours of November 5. He later told Hannah that she was experiencing such severe delirium that she was being aggressive with the paramedics, which was extremely out of character.
When she arrived at hospital, doctors at A&E initially thought she was on drugs – her behaviour was so erratic they thought she might be experiencing drug-induced psychosis.
However, Ryan and Hannah’s mum Christine pushed for further tests, and eventually Hannah was transferred to the ICU and placed into a medically induced coma.
While she was unconscious, doctors performed a lumbar puncture – a procedure where cerebrospinal fluid is collected from the lower spine – and the fluid was examined, confirming the diagnosis of pneumococcal meningitis.
“I was in a coma for a total of eight days, and then when I started to wake up, my brain still wasn’t functioning properly,” Hannah said.
“Luckily, when they did an MRI whilst I was in the coma, they could see my brain activity was still functioning, which was obviously a good sign for my family.
“At the stage when I was in the coma, they actually didn’t know if I was going to make it or not, or if I was going to be permanently brain-damaged for the rest of my life.”
According to the Meningitis Research Foundation, pneumococcal meningitis is one of the most life-threatening causes of bacterial meningitis, and is caused when pneumococcal bacteria invade the body and enter the cerebrospinal fluid, causing inflammation and swelling in the protective layers around the brain and spinal cord called meninges. This increases pressure on the brain, producing symptoms of meningitis.
When Hannah came out of the coma, she couldn’t walk or use her limbs, even to feed herself, as her muscles were weak from eight days of inactivity.
She was also still delirious: “I was having really scary dreams and thoughts – I thought all the nurses were trying to kill me,” she said.
“So I didn’t trust any of the nurses either. I wouldn’t eat any of the food that was being given to me because I thought they all poisoned it – my mum had to go to the M&S at the hospital every day and bring sealed food.”
Hannah remained in hospital for a further 10 days, being discharged after a total of 18 days, completely deaf in her left ear, and with 20 per cent hearing loss in her right.
She slowly regained control over her muscles, learning how to walk again, but the whole experience left her depressed and traumatised.
She contacted the Meningitis Research Foundation for support, and they advised her she should have received an audiology assessment before being discharged. She was able to be seen almost immediately by the hospital’s audiology department and given a hearing aid.
They also signposted her towards NHS Talking Therapies for mental health support as she came to terms with what had happened.
Symptoms of meningitis
NHS
Symptoms of meningitis develop suddenly and can include:
- a high temperature (fever)
- being sick
- a headache
- a rash that does not fade when a glass is rolled over it (but a rash will not always develop)
- a stiff neck
- a dislike of bright lights
- drowsiness or unresponsiveness
- seizures (fits)
“They were so supportive, and I didn’t feel so alone at that point,” Hannah said of the Meningitis Research Foundation.
“The services that they provide to people are invaluable. They’ve been so helpful to me,” she continued, adding that her fiancé and brother-in-law are planning to run the London Marathon this year for the charity, and have raised £5,000 between them so far.
However, Hannah’s battle with meningitis was not over. In March 2025, some three months after she had been discharged from hospital, she began to come out in a rash and immediately feared the worst.
On March 25, she started vomiting and speaking “gibberish”, and her partner Ryan immediately took her to A&E, where she was put on antibiotics immediately.
Doctors performed a lumbar puncture to see if she had meningitis again, and despite the antibiotics already starting to do their job, they confirmed that she had had a recurrence.
After briefly being sent home, the nurse who came to give her intravenous antibiotics did a blood test that found her infection rate “went through the roof again”, and she was admitted back into hospital for another week.
She later discovered the rash was caused by lupus, rather than meningitis, having been referred to rheumatology and diagnosed with the autoimmune condition.
In the process of doing the lumbar puncture, which Hannah said it took 10 attempts because she was unable to cooperate properly in her delirium, and a nerve was caught which made her lose sensation in her lower body and left her unable to walk or bear her own weight.
She needed to use a wheelchair and had six months of physiotherapy to regain control of her legs and to relearn how to walk, as well as vestibular physiotherapy to improve her balance, which has been affected by her hearing loss.
“Now I am walking again, which is great. I do still have severe back pain, which means I can’t walk as long as I used to, or as long as a 26-year-old should be able to anyway,” Hannah explained.
“I can’t stay on my feet for too long. My balance has been really affected. That’s the main thing that’s been affected … Where I’ve lost my hearing, my balance is really bad.”
A year later, however, Hannah still experiences post-traumatic stress from having meningitis – “mainly from the delirious episode”.
“I get flashbacks to the visions that I was having of people trying to kill me and stuff, which was, I know, not real, but it felt so real, and really scary,” she said.
Discussing the news that an outbreak of meningococcal meningitis – another kind of bacterial meningitis – has occurred in Kent, in which 18-year-old sixth former Juliette Kenny and a 21-year-old University of Kent student died, Hannah described the situation as “scary”.
Caroline Hughes, support services manager for the Meningitis Research Foundation, said: “Our thoughts remain with everyone affected by the meningitis outbreak in Kent. We know this is a worrying time, especially for parents of teenagers and young adults who want to know how to protect their loved ones.
“Vaccines provide vital protection against the most common causes of meningitis and are offered to people at the times of their life when they are most vulnerable.
“It is critical that people are up to date with the vaccines freely available on the NHS – including parents ensuring their teenagers have had their MenACWY vaccine.
“It’s also important to know that, while meningitis vaccines provide vital protection against the most severe forms of the disease, they do not cover every strain. That’s why it’s vital that everyone knows the signs and symptoms, which in the early stages can easily be mistaken for flu, Covid-19, or even a hangover.
“Always rely on trusted, evidence-based sources for information. If you suspect meningitis, trust your instincts and seek medical help immediately by contacting your GP, calling NHS 111, or dialling 999.”
For information and support, visit meningitis.org.
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