Two-year-old William Burton from Wellington is sadly another tragic case of unrecognised meningitis, where he has been left a quadriplegic and unable to see or hear.
And now two years on, a report from the Health and Disability Commissioner is due out today into how he was misdiagnosed twice before doctors recognised his illness.
After speaking to William's father this morning, Paul Henry shared a personal story of his family's brush with the heartbreaking disease.
Paul's daughter Bella was only eight years old when she was rushed to hospital with meningitis.
"This was years and years ago – I remember taking her, going to the hospital with her and her mother and it just happened so quickly."
Bella was extremely sick, and for a while, Paul and his family were put in a position where they had to start thinking about the unimaginable.
"You know how you don't like to bother health professionals – but you think there's something wrong, what is it? If they ask me, I won't be able to answer the question."
Bella had to undergo a lumbar puncture as doctors immediately recognised the classic meningitis symptoms.
"I remember looking at her face as she disappeared, you know, and I thought 'she's dying. She's going'," Paul said.
"And there's that moment in time, it was only very short, it was maybe only 10 minutes where you were looking at her thinking, this is only going to go one of two ways, because she was just there in time and you think, oh God, if we had decided to wait until the next morning.
"You look at their face and you're losing them – you think, 'we're in the hospital, she's on the bed, there's tubes coming out of her – there's nothing you can do'; she's either going to kick in or not."
Thankfully, Bella survived the night; and is now in perfect health in her early 20s.
There are about 100 cases of meningococcal disease in New Zealand each year, the symptoms including a high fever, headache, sleepiness, joint and muscle pains.
There can also be some more specific symptoms, such as a stiff neck, dislike of bright lights, vomiting, crying, refusal to feed (in infants), a rash consisting of reddish-purple pin-prick spots or bruises.
If you or anyone in your family has these symptoms, call your doctor straight away.
You can also call Healthline free on 0800 611 116 24 hours a day – even if you have already been seen by a health professional.
Watch the video.
