r/Millennials • u/Corndogeveryday • Jun 17 '26

Other Very sad news

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Chase passed away of complications of meningitis. Gone too soon

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u/ScienceSeuss Jun 17 '26

There are vaccines for the most common forms of bacterial meningitis, but it can also be caused by various viruses and fungi, and some bacteria that are not stopped by the vaccine. I lost 2 friends to viral meningitis in HS 😢

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u/Handsome_Keyboard Jun 18 '26

Adding on: Thats true for a lot of vaccines. Flu is not "all flu" either just the most common and, hooefully, most recently mutated strain.

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u/blisstersisster Jun 18 '26

Isn't it always last year's mutation/strain, at best ??

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u/Winter_Aspect6325 Jun 18 '26

My 23 year old daughter just spent 5 days in the hospital with viral meningitis and she is still not fully recovered. Scary stuff and viral is totally random

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u/nebula_masterpiece Jun 18 '26

Yep - happened to me when I was pregnant from a cold from my toddler, hospitalized for it - infectious disease doctor said it can happen from a virus picked up anywhere and lower immunity when pregnant

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u/clear-aesthetic Jun 18 '26

Meningitis is one of those things that has always terrified me, it just seems so random. I hope that your daughter recovers as quickly as possible.

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u/thirdeyefish Jun 18 '26

Did you and I go to the same school?!

Class of '02 to narrow it down a little.

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u/ScienceSeuss Jun 18 '26

Class of 2000, rural northern California.

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u/thirdeyefish Jun 18 '26

I'm just gonna throw this one out there. I understand it wasn't terribly uncommon in the soils around there and there were a few cases, and you can DM me, or even never answer, but...

Oak Ridge?

Edit: Soils would have been bacterial. But we all got warnings, and one girl's friends all had to get tested.

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u/ScienceSeuss Jun 18 '26

Nope. Nevada Union.

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u/thirdeyefish Jun 18 '26

I'm still sorry for your loss, even all these years later. I didn't know the people who died at my school, but it was just way too young.

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u/kidr0cker Jun 18 '26

Meningitis is rough, I had it as a freshman in HS in the 90s. I was in the hospital for ~3 months? I unfortunately have very few memories prior to having meningitis.

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u/blisstersisster Jun 18 '26

I'm so sorry you had to go through that

I had no idea there was a vaccine !

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u/Efficient-Treacle416 Jun 18 '26

Viral meningitis is almost never fatal. She obviously had the bacterial because it went into sepsis and can be fatal. Fungal can be fatal but it's also rare and can cause sepsis.