![\"Claire](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_claire-byrne.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Newstalk presenter has opened up about her harrowing experience with the infection as a teenager, explaining the symptoms she experienced and her time in hospital<\/p>\n
Today with Claire Byrne on RTE(Image: Andres Poveda)<\/p>\n
Claire Byrne has recalled receiving last rites from a priest after contracting meningitis as a teenager.<\/p>\n
The Newstalk<\/a> presenter spoke about her frightening experience with the infection as parts of the UK deal with an outbreak. Claire had meningitis in her teenage years and ended up severely sick.<\/a><\/p>\n She explained how the illness came on when she was at school<\/a> one day and suddenly got an “intense, indescribable” headache. Claire recalled: “The words literally started to move on the page. Like, if you think about it, the lining of your brain is swelling.<\/p>\n “So, you can imagine the pressure. It’s also hard to move your neck.”<\/p>\n “The doctor was delayed getting out to me, which ended up being a good thing because by the time he came, I was sick enough for him to realise that this was probably meningitis.<\/p>\n “But, I wasn’t sick enough for it to be too late. I didn’t have any rash which would indicate sepsis.<\/p>\n “I remember the doctor coming into the room and he said to me: ‘Can you stand up?’ And I remember trying to stand up and collapsing.”<\/p>\n Claire was taken to hospital immediately as she drifted “in an out of consciousness”.<\/p>\n Speaking to Anton Savage on Newstalk Breakfast, she continued: “So, that was a Wednesday and on the Thursday I was sitting up in bed talking to my aunt in great form.<\/p>\n “My parents were visiting me and thinking, ‘Oh God, isn’t it great that we escaped’, and then I got very sick on the Thursday night and then I got the last rites from the priest in the hospital.”<\/p>\n Anton asked Claire if she felt frightened at the time, to which she replied: “No, I remember seeing my parents kneeling beside the bed.<\/p>\n “And I remember the oils going on my head and I remember the words being spoken, but I was so sick that I wasn’t alert enough to be scared.<\/p>\n “I was very at peace with it.”<\/p>\n The ex RT\u00c9 star also experienced hallucinations, adding: “I saw frogs in the sink and pictures of family on the wall that didn’t exist.<\/p>\n “Now, I don’t know if that was me going down the tunnel or just hallucinating.”<\/p>\n Claire was rushed to Cherry Orchard hospital in an ambulance, with her parents sat in the back with her.<\/p>\n She said: “My mum had a special job, they said, ‘Keep her awake, do not let her go asleep.’<\/p>\n “I remember thinking, ‘Please leave me alone’, but she was slapping me on the side of the face to keep me alert and that was her instruction from the doctors.”<\/p>\n Claire stayed in hospital for two weeks and fortunately made a full recovery.<\/p>\n “I can’t believe it because people who I’ve met that recovered from meningitis have had hearing loss, sight loss, brain damage,” she told Anton.<\/p>\n “I didn’t have anything, no after effects. Other than for about two years afterwards, I had extreme exhaustion. I got away scot free, I was extremely lucky.”<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Dublin Live as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Newstalk presenter has opened up about her harrowing experience with the infection as a teenager, explaining the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6130,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-359716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-claire-byrne","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}