Parents of meningitis victim release picture to highlight early symptoms

This is the heartbreaking picture of seven-year-old Mason Timmins who died just moments later of meningitis — a little under 24 hours after falling ill.

His parents have released the picture in a bid to raise awareness of the disease and its varying warning signs.

Claire Timmins, Mason’s mother, urged parents to be more vigilant as the warning signs might not always be the obvious ones.

The boy had the viral meningitis vaccine but contracted the bacterial version of the disease.

“It was very hard to deal with and still is,” his mother, a teaching assistant from Walsall near Birmingham, said. “Mason was just seven years old and he was fit and healthy. He was always smiling and always had something to say.

“One morning, I heard him coughing and then he started to be sick — I thought it was just a bug as I had seen him a lot worse and it was nothing out of the ordinary. But by 3.30pm he started to get a temperature.”

When Mason’s temperature failed to go down, his parents took him to a doctor.

Mason had became “floppy” by the time he arrived at the doctor’s clinic.

“The doctor said straight away he thought it was meningitis and gave him some injections,” said Ms Timmins. “Mason then lost consciousness and he never regained it.

“We then found out that the meningitis had already attacked his brain and he was brain dead. He felt ill at 6.30am and by midnight he was brain dead.”

The parents were anxious to share the image of Mason, hoping they will help parents who might overlook symptoms beyond the commonly known ones.

“We want to raise as much awareness as possible and keep campaigning for this vaccination,” said Ms Timmins.

“There has been more and more cases and people need to think not only about the rash but the other symptoms as it can get hold quickly and result in death. It is important to look for the rash but there are other signs too.”

Symptoms of meningitis and septicaemia:

• Vomiting.
• Fever.
• Severe headache, limb, joint or muscle pain.
• Cold hands and feet and or shivering.
• Pale or mottled skin.
• Breathing fast or feeling breathless.
• A rash anywhere on the body.
• A stiff neck; a dislike of bright lights; very sleepy, vacant, or difficult to wake.
• Confused or delirious.

Other signs in babies:

• Tense or bulging soft spot on their head.
• Refusing to feed.
• Irritable when picked up, with a high-pitched cry.
• A stiff body with jerky movements, or else floppy and lifeless.
• Fever is often absent in babies less than three months of age.
• Septicaemia can occur with or without meningitis.