It was 50/50 whether she would pull through says Bucks Fizz Jay Aston as daughter battles meningitis
BUCKS Fizz legend Jay Aston has revealed her 18-year-old daughter is seriously ill in hospital with bacterial meningitis.
Jay's daughter Josie was rushed to hospital last month and almost died from the frightening disease.
At one point, she ended up in an induced coma as her organs started to shut down.
Jay, 60, told : “It’s been absolutely devastating. We were told it was 50/50 whether she would pull through. We still don’t know when she’ll be coming home.
“I sat by her bedside night after night willing her to make it. I couldn’t believe this was her fate, because she’s such a lovely person. She’s outgoing, kind, good-willed and full of life. It just felt so cruel."
Bucks Fizz star Jay added that she has been asking God to help save her beloved child.
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She said: “I’ve been doing a lot of praying. She’s my world – we’re ridiculously close. I just couldn’t imagine being without her.”
Jay found her daughter shaking and noticed a rash on her arm a month ago, the first of several warning signs that something was wrong.
Jay recalled: “She’d been lying out in the sun so I thought it was maybe heatstroke. A couple of days before that she’d complained that her joints were aching, which I’d put down to growing pains.”
When a headache and soaring temperature followed, Jay dialled 999.
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She said: "That was 6.45 pm, but the ambulance didn’t come. Her temperature reached almost 40. I started to get really worried. In the middle of the night, she said: ‘Mum, I’m not right.’ I saw red dots on her arm.”
After being rushed to hospital, Josie was admitted to the ward and within an hour her whole body was covered in a rash.
The following day, things turn an even more terrifying turn as Josie's organs started to fail.
“Doctors said all her organs were failing and it was 50/50 whether she would live," Jay explained.
What is meningitis?
It can be mistaken as the flu or even a hangover - but knowing the symptoms of potentially deadly meningitis could save your life.
It is the inflammation of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord and can be caused by meningococcal bacteria and viral meningitis.
If it is not treated quickly, meningitis can cause life-threatening septicaemia (blood poisoning) and result in permanent damage to the brain or nerves.
The two forms of the disease have different symptoms.
Around 3,200 people a year get bacterial meningitis. One in 10 die and many more are left with life-changing disabilities.
Viral forms of meningitis are less common and rarely life-threatening, but can have lifelong effects.
Infections peak during winter when bugs spread more easily in confined spaces.
Meningitis is usually passed on from people who carry the virus or bacterial form in their throat or nose, but aren't ill themselves.
It can be spread through kissing, sneezing, coughing and sharing household items such as toothbrushes or cutlery.
It is thought that the bacteria are able to invade the body more easily via the nose and throat during winter due to recent infection with flu virus.
The illness can be caught from someone who is ill with meningitis but this is more rare.
The symptoms of meningitis develop suddenly and include:
- A high fever over 37.5 degrees - the average human temperature
- being sick
- a headache
- a blotchy rash that doesn't fade when a glass is rolled over it
- stiffness, especially in the neck
- sensitivity to bright lights
- drowsiness, irritability or lack of energy
- cold hands and feet
- seizures
"I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She was only 18 and just a few days earlier she’d been 100% fit and healthy."
With one in ten cases of bacterial meningitis, a disease where bacteria attacks the brain and spinal cord, being fatal, doctors put Josie in an induced coma for five days.
“I was willing her to pull through," Jay said of her vigil at her daughter's bedside. "I held her hand but one had lines in it and on the other the rash was weeping and blistered. It was horrible.”
When Josie was brought out of the coma, initially there was no improvement. Jay said: “She didn’t come round for two days. They were the two worst days of my life. There was no response. I knew it could go either way.
“But I couldn’t let myself think that I might lose her."
Luckily, Josie turned a corner and came round, starting to speak a day later.
However, she is still not out of the woods as her kidneys are not fully working and may be permanently scarred.
Josie remains in hospital, where she is having dialysis, and at one point Jay feared she may have to have a limb amputated after one toe went black.
Jay said: "It’s quite common to lose limbs when you have meningitis so badly. We thought they might have to amputate it, but luckily, it’s coming back.
“Josie has been incredibly brave, but her spirits are low. She’s not going to be well for months, possibly the rest of the year.”
Bucks Fizz shot to fame in the 80s and had hits such as Making Your Mind Up, which they performed at Eurovision.
The original line up was Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay.
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Jay quit the band in 1985, but now she, Cheryl and Mike perform as The Fizz.
Jay battled oral cancer in 2018 and had to have a new tongue made from part of her thigh.
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