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Doctors believe virus has got through to brain through a small hole in his skull

By Lucy Laing

Last updated at 4:46 PM on 21st February 2012

Fighting fit: Seamus has not lost his sight or hearing despite having suffered meningitis six times

A six-year-old boy has beaten the killer brain bug meningitis every year since his birth, astounding experts.

Seamus Rafferty has been left with epilepsy and a tremor in his hands because so many blood vessels have been damaged, but he has luckily escaped any brain damage and hasn’t lost his sight or hearing.

His mother Caiomhe Rafferty, 31, who is married to Chris, 34, said: ‘The doctors are all amazed that Seamus has beaten meningitis so many times.

‘It is a miracle that he’s still with us - but he’s such a little fighter. He never lets it beat him.I can’t believe he’s still here.’

Seamus was first struck with the bug in May 2006, when he was just ten months old. He started suffering with a high temperature and a fit whilst he was sat on his mother’s knee.

Mrs Rafferty, who lives in Keady, Co Armagh, said: ‘I’d taken him to the doctors who said that he had a stomach bug and to take him home, which I did.

‘But as I was sitting with him on my knee he suddenly started having a fit. So I rang the ambulance straight away. I was terrified about what was happening to him.’

The ambulance rushed Seamus to Craigavern Hospital, Co Armagh, and a lumbar puncture showed that he was suffering from streptococcal meningitis. The doctors pumped him full of antibiotics to try and save him.

Mrs Rafferty said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when it was diagnosed as meningitis. I just had to hope that he would pull through.’

After seven days in hospital, Seamus made a recovery and the couple took him back home. But then just six months later was ill again and this time he had a rash on his body.

 

Mrs Rafferty said: ‘I’d taken him to the doctors as he was off-colour, but then after I’d driven home, I lifted him out of his car seat and I noticed the rash on his body. It had literally appeared on the drive home from the doctor’s surgery.

‘I knew that meningitis caused a rash, but I never thought it would be, because he had only had it six months ago. I just thought it couldn’t possibly be happening to him again.

‘I put him straight back in the car seat and rushed back to the surgery. They gave him antibiotics straight away and called an ambulance.’

Mother Caiomhe said her son survived as they rushed him to hospital quickly each time he exhibited symptoms

Seamus was rushed back into hospital where the doctors diagnosed him with meningitis - but this time it was pneumococcal meningitis - a different strain than before.

Mrs Rafferty said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when the doctors told me he had meningitis for a second time. It was different strains too, so he had just been incredibly unlucky. He was only a year old, and again he was fighting for his life.’

Luckily Seamus responded to treatment and after two weeks in hospital he was allowed home again.

Since then he has been struck down with the bug another four times, in October 2008, January 2009, October 2010 and most recently, January 2011.

Mrs Rafferty said: ‘It just strikes so quickly, but after the second time, I’ve recognised the symptoms each time we’ve rushed him straight to hospital. So he’s been treated incredibly quickly, and I believe that is what has saved his life.

‘The fifth time he got it, he was jumping on the sofa at 9.30am. Half an hour later he was complaining of the bright lights and an hour later he was having convulsions. So he goes downhill with it so fast.

‘It’s just amazing that he has survived it so many times.’

Doctors have discovered a small hole in his skull, and believe this may be how the virus is getting through each time. In December he underwent an operation at Belfast Children’s Hospital where surgeons located the hole and blocked it.

They are hoping that this may prevent him from getting meningitis again.

Mrs Rafferty said: 'We are hoping that the operation has been a success and he won’t get it again, but we just have to wait and see.'

In December, Seamus had a hole in his skull blocked during an operation at Belfast Children's Hospital

She added that her son had been incredibly lucky not to suffer many of the meningitis complications.

'It did affect his balance one time and he walked with his head tilted to the left for six months, but that gradually righted itself,' she said.

'He’s such a happy little boy and it never lets it get him down. After his operation he asked me if he was fixed now, and we just have to hope that he doesn’t get it again.

'Beating meningitis six times by the age of six is enough for anyone.'

A spokeswoman for the Meningitis Trust, who have provided Seamus with an Ipad to catch up with his education, said: 'Seamus’s case is unique. We are not aware of any other child in the UK who has had meningitis this many times.'

 

Read more here:
Boy, 6, survives meningitis a record SIX times after virus gets in through hole in his head