Student, 21, dies of meningitis after mistaking symptoms for a hangover

A 21-year-old girl who died of meningitis thought she was just suffering from a hangover, her mother has revealed. 

Jennifer Gray had been with friends on a night out when she started feeling sick and had a mild headache so left for home on April 15.

The next morning, she still felt sick and had sore joints but dismissed it as a bug or a hangover.

This teen nearly died from Meningitis B after mistaking it for exam stress
Just 24 hours later, the 21-year-old was in a coma after being taken to hospital by her worried father.

Doctors revealed that she’d had bacterial meningitis only after she died.
Her mother, Edwina, 52, has now spoken out about her daughter and the disease’s symptoms.

She said: ‘Meningitis struck my family. It came for us like a bolt from the blue. It is the worst possible thing to happen to someone who has an only child.

Jennifer (right) had been out with friends the night before when she started felling sick and had a headache (Picture: meningitis.org)

‘Now I’ll never be a gran. I selfishly think about that. I’ll never see her married. Maybe she was never going to be married because we didn’t get to see what the future held.
‘That opportunity is gone.’

Jennifer was in her third year at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) in Paisley studying forensic science.

Symptoms include: a high temperature, being sick, a headache, a blotchy rash, a stiff neck and drowsiness.

At the start of April, she had suffered a cold and had a sore throat and a cough but she still went to classes.
Edwina said: ‘Her symptoms were atypical. She didn’t have a rash. When she phoned NHS 24, that was one of the things they were asking her.
‘Even when Jamie took her to the out-of-hours GP, the doctor thought she had the flu.’

When she arrived at the hospital, Edwina was shocked by her daughter’s condition.
She said: ‘She looked horrendous. Within that hour since I last saw her, there was a rapid increase in symptoms.

‘The hospital said they hadn’t seen the illness move as fast as with Jennifer. She came in with vague symptoms and within hours, she was dead.’

After her death, Jennifer’s organs went to saving the lives of five people and she was also awarded a posthumous degree from UWS.
Her parents are now trying to raise awareness about Meningitis and have raised around £10,000 for the Meningitis Research Fund in the last five months.

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