Patti Wukovits
ASMP Advocate

As a healthy high school senior, my daughter, Kimberly came home from school one afternoon complaining of body aches and a fever of 101. Her pediatrician recommended that she come to the office the following morning if her flu-like symptoms didn’t improve. The next morning, it was clear that this was something much worse.

​She complained that her entire body hurt her from “my eyelashes down to my toes," and she felt like her ankles were "bleeding.” I saw a few tiny purple dots on one of her ankles, and as a registered nurse, I knew immediately that it was very serious. She was rushed to the Emergency Room.

When the doctor in the Emergency Room told me she suspected Kimberly had bacterial meningitis and that the bacteria had infected her blood, I told her that it couldn’t be possible because she had been vaccinated with the meningitis vaccine. I made sure that both of my children were up to date on all of their vaccines, including meningococcal vaccination.

​​I later learned that the meningococcal vaccine Kimberly had received (MenACWY) did not protect her against meningitis B (meningococcal serogroup B). I also learned that at the time, in 2012, there wasn’t a meningitis B vaccine available in the U.S. I was under the false impression that Kimberly was fully protected against meningococcal meningitis, when in fact, she was not.

Within hours of Kimberly’s first symptoms, her heart and kidneys were failing, and she was in septic shock. By then, the purple dots had turned into a purple rash that had spread all over her body, and she was rapidly losing blood flow to her extremities. Two days later, the official diagnosis was confirmed. Kimberly had meningococcemia — the meningococcal bacteria had infected her blood, and she was fighting for her life. After starting dialysis for her failing kidneys, she went into cardiac arrest. She was resuscitated and placed on a ventilator. Kimberly still had brain activity, and we still had hope. As the days stretched on, it was apparent that if Kimberly survived, she would likely be a quadruple amputee.

​A few days later, it was determined that Kimberly had impending brain herniation. Further testing declared her to be brain-dead. I made the most difficult decision of my life to remove my beautiful 17-year-old daughter from life support. There is not one hour that goes by that I don't think about her.

​Kimberly Coffey was buried three days before her high school graduation in the prom dress she didn’t get to wear. She didn’t have the opportunity to be vaccinated against Meningitis B.