Kyle Lindsey
Born, August 16, 1977
Great Husband and Dad
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My name is Stacey Lindsey and my
husband Kyle Lindsey survived Pneumococcal Meningitis back in February
of this year. We have 2 small children, Madison who just turned 4 and
Emma who just turned 2. They both had RSV ( a cold virus) the first
week of February. Around February 12 Kyle came down with what we
thought was the same bug. On February 16 he woke up with a fever and
the chills and also vomited once or twice. He had a fever of about
102. We treated his symptoms and he slept all day, it was a Sunday.
Monday I took him to the doctor first thing in the morning. The nurse
that called us back said that we were the 4th ones in with the exact
symptoms. Kyle had difficulty breathing, pain in his chest when he
coughed and was real short of breath, also his fever remained. We were
sent home diagnosed with a sinus and viral infection. No tests had been
performed to rule out pneumonia or bronchitis. The P.A. we saw gave us
a prescription for Zithromax and said if he wasn't better in 2 days to
start it. Kyle was up and down but no worse until about the 2nd day.
We had his parents fill the Rx in the middle of the night. That next
day Kyle thought he felt a little better. He was even planning on
going to work the next day. A good friend of ours brought over dinner
that night - it had been my birthday and I was exhausted from everyone
being sick. She left and we were all ready for bed. Around 9 pm we
went to bed. At 10:30 pm I woke to hear Kyle getting up. I asked if he
was ok and he said "No. Its back again." . He was talking about the
fever and chills. We went down stairs. After a while I got him to take
a cool shower. He thought that it made his head feel better. I had him
laying on the couch and around 1 am he began vomiting. My 3 1/2 year
old (at the time) had gotten up so I was so flustered I called my in
laws over for help. When they arrived we thought Kyle was sleeping.
After a couple hours I was getting ready to send them home when Kyle's
weak voice said "Stace" I went to see what he wanted and he told me
his headache was moving into his neck. I decided to take him in. His
dad and I walked him to the car and his dad drove us to a nearby
hospital. Kyle walked in and went through the triage business and was
put into a room. There was another patient there having a heart attack
so naturally we had to wait. He was so uncomfortable. About 1 hour
after we arrived there, he asked for water. We sat him up to give him
a drink and he said " I can't see". I ran out and got the nurse and
from then on he went down hill. Within minutes he was unable to
control himself and 4 men had to hold him down. The only testing they
could do was a chest x-ray and labs. They found that he had pneumonia
and sinusitis,
Both were
undiagnosed and untreated and so they lead to the meningitis.
They were baffled as to why he was in such a state. They finally
had to paralyze him and put in a breathing tube. and then shipped us
to a larger hospital. The Dr. at the small hospital said that he
didn't think it was meningitis because his symptoms weren't typical
but he started the treatment for it just in case. When we arrived at
the larger hospital they took him right to CT. It was 6 am. His brain
looked normal at that time but by 3 pm he had no room around his
brainstem. We feared the worst. His spinal tap revealed that his
spinal fluid was like milk - indicating for sure that he had a form of
meningitis. a few hours later we found that it was Pneumococcal
meningitis. Kyle spent 2 weeks in the Trauma Unit. There was a time
when they told us to tell him what we wanted him to know. They were
unable to drain any fluid off his brain as it was just too thick to
flow. The meds they gave him to reduced the swelling of his brain
stopped working a few days later. Kyle soon developed seizures and the
only other thing they could do was try the drainage tube again. This
time it worked. Kyle was kept in a drug induced coma to minimize
stimulation as much as possible. As his pressure on his brain was
regulated they began lifting the coma. But with that came the fear of
what was left. He had a brain hernia ion as well as at least one
stroke. The Dr. feared that he would need a trachea and a feeding tube
for the rest of his life. Then even more fear set in. Each day we saw
improvement s in him. I never thought I would be excited to see his
tongue move or to see him yawn or move his hands in response to pain.
As the days went on He woke up more and I began to fear he wouldn't
know me. The day he said his first word I will never forget. I was
sitting with him in the morning and we were looking at each other when
he whispered "I love you". I couldn't believe it! From then on he
developed the usual brain injury behavior changes. The Dr. told us
before we left that she felt he would be on his feet in a year and playing with
our girls. Well, here we are 6 months later ( Aug 19 is the 6 mo
anniversary) and he is back to work full time. He spent 4 weeks in a
rehab hospital and had a few months of outpatient therapy. He has some
visual problems, some short term memory problems, and some problems
with his bladder but he is so much better than anyone thought he would
be. He is known as the miracle boy to his neurologist and to those
who took such good care of him. We still have our good and bad days
but we now recognize that everyday we have together is great no matter
what our trouble. God has brought us through so much. We feel that God
has a real purpose for our lives and we are so thankful that he let
Kyle stay with us a while longer. We have learned to live everyday as
if it was our last because we are only promised this day - we don't
know if tomorrow will come.
We wanted to share our story
with all of you. We wish everyone's story could have a happy ending
like ours. We want to help give hope to new meningitis victims and
there families - I know we sure needed it!
Thanks, And God bless you all!
The Lindsey's
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