David Chaney, a mechanical engineering freshman, is recovering from having a strand of meningitis not protected by the most recent vaccine, Dr. Stefan Montgomery said.
He has been at Baton Rouge General Hospital for the past month recovering from the amputation of all 10 of his toes. The surgery was a result of the deadly bacteria, said Chaney’s mother Shelley.
Chaney contracted neisseria meningitides strand B, which is a little rarer than what is covered by the vaccine, Montgomery said.
Approximately one-third of all cases of meningitis are strand B, which is not covered by the vaccine. Another third is strand C and the other is strand Y, which are both covered by the vaccine, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals state epidemiologist.
“This vaccine is good, but not perfect,” Montgomery said.
However, Ratard still encouraged students to be vaccinated because January is the peak month for meningitis. Many of the symptoms are similar to flu-like symptoms, which include upset stomach, high fever, headache and stiff neck, he said.
Symptoms can be as simple as flu-like symptoms and as serious as mental changes and coma, Montgomery said.
One in 10 people die from meningitis, Ratard said.
Chaney said he was lucky because doctors caught his case before it became deadly. Time and speed are of the essence with this type of bacteria, he said.
“If I would have gone to sleep for an hour, I wouldn’t have woke up,” Chaney said.
His roommates finally decided to take him to the hospital when they saw his legs were turning purple, he said.
“I was already so weak they had to help me get dressed to go to the hospital,” he said.
In the emergency room, the doctors immediately suspected he had meningitis upon looking at the purple rash, called purpura, covering his body and began administering antibiotics, Montgomery said.
After 24 hours of antibiotics, meningitis is no longer contagious. Doctors kept Chaney in respiratory isolation — a room where reverse air flow diverts air from the doorway and channels it into another ventilation system, Montgomery said.
This type of care is necessary because meningitis is spread through respiratory secretions or saliva, which can only occur at close contact or if an infected person coughs on someone, Montgomery said. If it is on a counter top, for example, the bacteria would die after a certain amount of time, he said.
The Chaney family and his doctors said it is unclear exactly where he contracted this particular strand of meningitis. No one in the Baton Rouge area has shown up with anything resembling what Chaney had. However, it is unclear if he spread the bacteria to anyone else, Montgomery said.
A large percentage of the population is walking around with the meningitis bacteria in their system and never display any symptoms of being sick, Montgomery said. Some people naturally produce antibodies, protecting themselves from the effects of the bacteria, and some people’s immune systems respond negatively, producing deadly effects, he said.
      Chaney lives in a house off-campus — not in the dorms, the usual high risk area — and hopes to return to his job at a local restaurant when he recovers.
Meningococcal meningitis, like Chaney contracted, is a rare bacteria, but it is very deadly, Montgomery said. This particular type of bacteria enters the blood stream and spinal fluid and causes inflammation all over the body. The arteries, spinal column and swelling in the meninges in the brain are more commonly affected, he said.
“The infection causes the arteries not to work right,” Montgomery said.
The bacteria releases substances causing arteries to leak blood into the tissues or to cramp up, constricting blood flow, he said. The pause in blood flow starts at the tips of the extremities and tissue dies as blood flow starts to constrict into the body.
The purple rash is created from the places where the arteries and capillaries bled out, Chaney said.
At one point, Chaney lost a pulse because the blood was not circulating around his body, Montgomery said.
“You never know when your day is going to come,” his mother said. “We realize how fortunate he is.”
Since he has been in the hospital, Chaney has lost 40 pounds, even though he has been on a 3,000 calorie diet.
Despite the many obstacles he has encountered in the past month, Chaney remains optimistic about his future.
“The future is bright,” he said. “Once I beat this.”
Dr. Timothy Honigman said since Chaney did not live on campus and the incident occurred over the break, there is no need to distribute a campuswide vaccination.
The meningitis vaccine is available everyday at the Student Health Center and will be provided by Vaccess Health in November, Honigman said.
Vaccess Health also will have a table at the Wellness Fair in April, he said.
“I know it happened to me. I want everyone else to realize it can still happen to them,” Chaney said. “I’m just so happy to be here.”