4 yr old in hosp.2 days with bac. meningitis, better but can't walk, or lift head. Can that be temporary?

Question

My friends 4 year old son is in the hospital with bacterial meninigits for 2 days and he was very sick but they got him on antibiodic and did ct scan shows no obvious brain damage and he is eating but can not hold his head up or walk. Could this be a temporary thing because he is weak? He seems better but they are not sure if this can be a short term thing or if this could be a permanent side effect from the menigits. Can't find hardly any information on this. Thank you

Answer 1

Bacterial meningitis can cause plenty of problems if it gets out of control, but from the sounds of things your friend's child got proper treatment very quickly and that always helps improve things faster. Menigitis causes inflammation of the lining of the spinal cord- which controls all the movement in the body. Some of the more famous symptoms are headache, body aches and an extremely stiff neck. One way that docs come to suspect meningitis to begin with is by seeing if you can touch your chin to your chest- or if it is too painful, or if you will even try. In the case of a child, if it hurts too much they won't even try. Small sick children simply lie there, which is heartbreaking to see. It's hard to say if he can't move, or won't because it just hurts too much. Likely, this is temporary and will go away as the inflammation of the spinal cord goes away, and he discovers he can move without it hurting anymore. It takes a few days, even with the super antibiotics, so be patient and supportive of his parents in the meantime. I'm sure they have had the fright of their lives as well. Most of the time, if the child has survived the first 24 hours, things will improve and they will recover. There can be permanent deafness or paralysis, but usually this is seen in the cases where the child is seriously ill before they are diagnosed and treated, and there is systemic shock due to the infection. It doesn't sound like this was the case with your friends child. So I would expect a pretty full recovery. The doctor treating the child would be the best one to ask, though- as the actual outcome really depends on the child and the type infection.

Answer 2

kids are incredibly resilient, I suspect the little guy will come out of it just fine. My brother suffered with meningitis and encephalitis at the same time, damn near died, and this was many years ago before they had good antibiotics. Give him time, if the CT showed no damage there is no reason to believe his condition at present is permanent.

Answer 3

Yes it can be temp..read here..

http://www.dhpe.org/infect/Bacmeningitis.html