Hours That Mattered: Meningitis Survivor Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe meningitis and the recovery after it, told by survivors from infancy to seventy-eight and by the parents, spouses and siblings who sat beside the bed. The causes vary widely: bacterial and viral meningitis, a dry-season outbreak in Kano, tuberculous meningitis and a year of tablets, infection after an operation, a tick bite, a neglected toothache, shingles, a sinus infection, and painkillers that brought it on twice. Writers include a dancer, a market trader, a bus driver, a nurse who knew the signs and still missed them, a woman late in pregnancy, and a schoolboy cricketer, from Manchester and Accra to Osaka, Tallinn and a village in the Eastern Cape. They describe being sent home with painkillers, intensive care, six weeks of antibiotics through a line at the kitchen table, shunts, a cochlear implant switched on, and a healthy twin given antibiotics too. Outcomes differ: some were back to normal within weeks, while others live with deafness, a leg lost below the knee, missing toes, dizziness, memory and thinking problems, or cerebral palsy after an infection at four months. Some also describe large bills, hidden anxiety, and the guilt of having got off lightly.

Who it's for

For survivors of meningitis and the families who waited beside them, and for anyone living with hearing loss, memory trouble or a new fear of headaches after the illness.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 283 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.