The family of a Wellington schoolgirl who died on Monday of meningococcal disease has recalled the traumatic hours before her death.
Amanda, 12, woke up on Monday morning and felt sick. After spewing up in the hallway, she took the day off school and stayed at home.
By 3pm she started to develop some blotches on her skin, so her grandparents Tracy and Kim took her to the medical centre.
But as Amanda was getting ready to go, she was found in the bathroom hunched over a chair.
“She was making funny noises and starting to go purple, a blackish purple and I was straight onto the phone to 111,” says Tracy.
The ambulance arrived and paramedics worked on her in the hallway. Amanda was able to talk but slurring her words.
“Her eyes were whitish and bloodshot and you could see her colour changing,” says Tracy. “We thought she just had a bug or a virus or something like that and later on she would be coming home and bragging about what had happened… but no.”
Amanda was rushed to hospital where staff began working on her immediately.
“Most of the time, I was in there holding her hand or foot,” says Tracy.
Amanda’s mother Lisa rushed to hospital from Masterton to be by her side.
The family watched as doctors drilled antibiotics into her bone marrow. But their anticipation slowly turned into panic, disbelief and then heartbreak.
After 45 minutes of CPR, Amanda had died.
Tracy says her entire body turned black, like a thumbnail hit with a hammer.
“It’s all just like the grim reaper has come in a grabbed her,” he says. “It’s just not right.”
3 News