Jamie-leigh Britt
Born on September 14, 1987 - Heaven Bound on May 22, 2006
This is a short story of another meningitis angel. She is my daughter and her name is Jamie-leigh Britt. She was a high school senior just 13 days away from graduation. She had the usual "burning the candle at both ends" that goes along with being 18 years old. She attended school full time, took pre-college English and Spanish classes, had a part-time job at a local grocery store, and a new boyfriend. On Mother's Day 2006, she complained she did not feel well and was going to rest before work. She had just general unwell symptoms, like nausea, headache, etc. She went to school and work on Monday and on Tuesday. She was not eating very much because of nausea and some vomiting. She had a fever on and off. On Tuesday she went to school and work. She called me from work crying and begging for me to bring her something for pain. That was totally Not Jamie. She came home and we went to the ER where they performed all sorts of blood tests, blood cultures, and a spinal tap. They said they could not find anything but a low blood count. She was prescribed Darvocet for the pain and an antibiotic. We were told to follow up with her family doctor the next day, which we did. He looked over the report and could find nothing out of the ordinary except for the low blood count. We were told to take her home, keep her on bed rest, take her pain medication and antibiotics, and she should be able to return to work and school on the following Monday. She stayed in the bed or on the computer or her cell phone most of the week-end (if she wasn't sleeping). She still complained of head and neck pain, although not a great deal. I took her to school on Monday morning and while there, she got violently ill with sweats, nausea, and a great deal of pain. Brought her home and gave her a Darvocet and she went to sleep. She got up 2 hours later and said she felt "much better" and was going to go back to school to work on their computers to finish some make up work. I told her not to be too long and not to try and overdo it. We live 2 blocks from the high school. She had been gone about 30 minutes when the school called and said that Jamie had fallen and hit her head and that "it doesn't look good". When I arrived the parking lot was cordoned off with police tape, there were multiple ambulances and fire trucks everywhere, and I was met by what seemed like every official in the school. I was escorted into the library where my child was lying on the floor with paramedics surrounding her and doing CPR and also shocking her. It was horrific. I was not allowed to go to her, but I already realized that she was no longer bound to this earth. I was allowed to ride in the ambulance with her to the local hospital where she was pronounced DOA about 10 minutes after our arrival. An autopsy was ordered that took over a month to come back. The official cause of death was listed as "viral meningitis". Everything that I've read says that viral meningitis is RARELY fatal....