Givealittle<\/a> page. <\/p>\n\u201cSomeone messaged me and said, \u2018Good luck for the walk, I can just see him now, his skinny little white chest puffed out, saying, \u2018That\u2019s my mum\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Todd]()
Todd Horton aims to walk the 172.6km stretch from Oamaru to Ashburton along SH1, honouring Dion\u2019s memory. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
\u2018If I had my suspicions, he wouldn\u2019t have gone\u2019<\/p>\n
The tragedy began as a minor cough that Hodder brushed off because he wanted to attend a St John cadet camp on Motutapu Island. <\/p>\n
Horton dropped her son off to catch the bus, extremely excited to see his long-distance girlfriend, who was also at the camp. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had my suspicions, he wouldn\u2019t have gone. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was bouncing off walls. He was eating normally, he\u2019d been sleeping fine,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Hodder boarded the ferry to the island and told his friends he felt his heart beating fast, but it was thought to be because of his fear of water. <\/p>\n
![\"Dion]()
Dion Hodder, 16, was known for being kind and caring. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next morning, he was quite pale, wasn\u2019t particularly hungry, which definitely wasn\u2019t like him,\u201d Horton said. <\/p>\n
He was monitored throughout the day, but when he came in from lunch, staff could tell something wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n
About 5pm her mobile phone rang, and it was one of the leaders at camp.<\/p>\n
She was told the Westpac Trust Rescue Helicopter was on its way because Hodder had been vomiting. <\/p>\n
All his vital signs were good, but one of the leaders wasn\u2019t happy with his condition and insisted he be airlifted to hospital. <\/p>\n
The disease progressed rapidly \u2013 there were no skin blotches before the short helicopter flight, but they appeared by the time he arrived at the emergency department.<\/p>\n
![\"Meningitis]()
Meningitis can occur due to a viral, bacterial or fungal infection and requires emergency medical treatment.<\/p>\n
At the time, Horton said she and her husband didn\u2019t realise how serious the situation was when they jumped into the car in Kerikeri for the four-and-a-half-hour drive to hospital. <\/p>\n
As doctors fought to save him, a friend of Horton\u2019s who was already at the hospital called her during the drive and broke the news: her son was suspected to have meningitis.<\/p>\n
Horton said she struggled to keep the news from her husband, wanting him to stay focused on the drive.<\/p>\n
Dion was becoming agitated, and the decision was made to sedate and intubate him. <\/p>\n
The couple arrived at hospital about 10.45pm. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t remember a lot of it. It\u2019s a bit muddled … We shot up to the ward, and they were just wheeling Dion past us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was on his way through for a CT at the time, and staff told them they could see him briefly. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the bed coming out and my gorgeous boy being on the bed and just tubes and wires and a non-responsive boy. <\/p>\n
![\"Dion]()
Dion Hodder was Order of St John Cadet of the Year in 2016. Photo \/ Claire Gordon<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember vaguely saying to him, \u2018You fight. You\u2019ve got this son. You\u2019re strong and I love you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some time later, a nurse came in and told them that his heart had stopped. <\/p>\n
She said she declined to watch the staff perform CPR because she couldn\u2019t bear the image in her mind. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey came through about five minutes later and said, \u2018He\u2019s gone.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI walked into the room, but he still wasn\u2019t Dion as far as I was concerned. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t look like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she stood at the doorway and spoke to him from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think my brain wanted to believe that he was gone. You\u2019re not supposed to bury your kids,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
![\"Dion]()
Dion Hodder died aged 16 on October 20, 2018, from meningococcal septicaemia due to having meningitis. Photo \/ Givealittle<\/p>\n
Symptoms in adults and children <\/p>\n
A stiff, sore neck.\u00a0A sensitivity to light, or a dislike of bright lights (an early warning sign of meningitis).\u00a0\u00a0A severe headache.\u00a0If the child or adult is difficult to wake, or in a drowsy and confused state.\u00a0A fever, sometimes accompanied by cold hands and feet.\u00a0Aching sore joints.\u00a0Vomiting \u2013 a common symptom of meningitis in both children and adults.\u00a0\u00a0Convulsive fits or seizures is characteristic of meningitis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who is eligible for vaccines?<\/p>\n
In New Zealand, you are eligible for a free meningococcal B vaccine if you are under 5 years old, or if you are a young person aged between 13 and 25 entering your first year of a close-living situation, such as a boarding school or university hall of residence. <\/p>\n
The MenACWY and MenB vaccines are free for adolescents and young adults aged 13\u201325 in these close-living situations. <\/p>\n
Other vaccines are also available for purchase through a doctor if you don\u2019t meet the criteria for a free vaccination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe was a bit of a people magnet. \u201cHe\u2019d pull in those people that were on the outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[74,1408,1977,634,49159,38471,6179,5988,71,134,5838,2225,33555,33554,6178,30504,111,139,69,193,49160,11596,4514,49158,24994,23333,43211,10706,47066,34890,17454],"class_list":["post-59450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-after","tag-awareness","tag-charity","tag-death","tag-determined","tag-devastating","tag-died","tag-families","tag-from","tag-health","tag-help","tag-loss","tag-meningitis","tag-meningococcal","tag-mother","tag-mums","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-prevent","tag-raises","tag-same","tag-septicaemia","tag-sudden","tag-suddenly","tag-suffering","tag-teenage","tag-teenagers","tag-walk","tag-whose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}