![\"Eliana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/8d89b411351b7784ee5a0bae0d48dca6.jpeg\"\/)
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Eliana Shaw-Lothian \/ SWNS<\/p>\n
Eliana Shaw-Lothian with her father<\/p>\n
When she called home, her mom asked if she had a rash, which is a common symptom of meningitis<\/a>. But Shaw-Lothian didn\u2019t see anything like that. She tried to rest again, but later that night, \u201cI started severely throwing up, as well as having difficulty moving due to stiff muscles and joints in my neck, arms, and legs.\u201d<\/p>\n Meningitis<\/a> is a life-threatening inflammation of the meninges, which surround your brain and spinal cord. It is spread through close contact with an infected person, such as through respiratory droplets from coughing or sneezing. As the Cleveland Clinic<\/a> explains, living \u201cin a group setting, like in a college dorm\u201d puts you at an increased risk of meningitis. Symptoms include fever, severe headache, neck stiffness, nausea, vomiting and light sensitivity.<\/p>\n Shaw-Lothian said she even felt paralyzed at some points, which was extremely troubling to her as a dancer. Then her sickness got worse.<\/p>\n Her parents \u2014 now extremely worried \u2014 had repeatedly called her phone until a roommate heard it going off. The roommate found Shaw-Lothian \u201ccompletely delirious in my bedroom.” Her parents contacted campus security immediately and arranged for an ambulance to take the teenager to the emergency room.<\/p>\n \u201cMy last memory was thinking I needed to go to the hospital,” Shaw-Lothian said. “My next memory was waking up in the hospital three days later.”<\/p>\n Eliana Shaw-Lothian \/ SWNS<\/p>\n Eliana Shaw-Lothian, now 20, is sharing her experience to raise awareness of the symptoms of bacterial meningitis.<\/p>\n When she arrived, \u201cmy lips had started to turn blue,\u201d says Shaw-Lothian, whose telltale meningitis rash had begun to appear. She was hallucinating and deteriorating \u201crapidly,\u201d she says \u2014 and was sent to the ICU.<\/p>\n By that night, \u201cthey were treating me for bacterial and viral meningitis, as well as sepsis,” adding that she was so sick, they didn’t want to wait for the test results to come back.<\/p>\n After telling her parents she was in “acute danger,” doctors put her in a medically induced coma. They put her on a ventilator and gave her a feeding tube until she began to show signs of fighting the infection.<\/p>\n \u201cWaking up was terrifying,\u201d Shaw-Lothian, said, sharing she will \u201cnever forget\u201d being told she had bacterial meningitis<\/a> and had been close to death.<\/p>\n Two years later, the college freshman is left to grapple with lasting effects of her illness, like hearing loss and loss of motor skills. \u201cEating and walking was a struggle to begin with, and as a dancer, that was very hard for me to come to terms with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been a struggle mentally to get back on my feet and recover from this illness as well as process what I went through,” she said. “But despite still having fluid around my heart as well as concentration problems, I have fully resumed university life as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Eliana Shaw-Lothian \/ SWNS<\/p>\n Eliana Shaw-Lothian, now 20, had bacterial meningitis during her first year at school.<\/p>\n She’s since joined her school\u2019s dance squad and is back to competing. “You want to get back to normal and do things you used to do as soon as possible,” she said. But, she also wants those at risk to recognize the signs of meningitis and to accept the complexity of the recovery process.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding the signs and symptoms could potentially be lifesaving, especially in the context of university life in student accommodation, where you might not know the people you are sharing with.\u201d<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n![\"Eliana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/77fee90af1edcf26259e0e840160ac6f.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Eliana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/07fd7a0440f0a2f0a3c3967f447bd75a.jpeg\"\/)
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