She was rushed to hospital and thankfully pulled through, but has been left with life-changing after-effects, leaving Nadia, from Walsall, devastated, shocked and frightened.
She recounts their story here.
“I left a happy, healthy girl at 5pm with her dad and went out to see friends. At 10pm my instincts told me to go home.
“I came home to find Ebonie asleep in our bed with my partner’s back turned to her doing work on a laptop. He told me she was not well.
“I look at her and I have never seen a child so white, but her eyes looked as if she had been in my eyeshadow – they were black.
She screamed
“I was like, wow wow what’s wrong with her? I turned the bedroom light on and she screamed. I grabbed a phone and dialled 999. Whilst I'm on the phone her fingers and toes started to turn black. Her temperature was 45.4.
“The paramedics were there in minutes. By this time a very faint rash was coming on her chest. The paramedics thought it was meningitis and he injected penicillin into her leg and we were gone, straight to hospital.
“This all took just 10 minutes from me getting home to going to hospital. Ebonie was out for three days and she spent a week in hospital and a month with IV antibiotics at home.
Complex needs
“I thought we were okay - she didn't die and she had all her limbs. How wrong was I. It’s only now that we are finding out the horror this horrible disease has left. Ebonie has had damage left and she is seeing many professionals to try and find out what meningitis has left in its wake.
“That night my little girl didn't come home. I have a new girl now with so many complex needs.
“I'm in shock, anger, and frightened for my child’s future. I never understood that meningitis could leave damage like this.
“No-one told me anything when I left hospital with her and it took around three to six months for me to realise something was completely wrong and just as long for the professionals to see and understand the changes.
“There needs to be more awareness with the public and doctors about the devastating long-term after-effects that this horrific disease can leave in its wake.”
