Dying at 18 after going to a party: this is what happened to Ally Behan, struck down by fulminant meningitis. The girl lived in a city on the south coast of New South Wales, in Canberra. She had recently finished her studies, she enjoyed herself with friends and went to parties. Just one of these, the Spilt Milk music festival, however, was fatal. Returning home at the end of the evening, on November 26th, she began to experience some initial gastrointestinal symptoms which immediately turned into something more serious.
Concerned, the parents took their daughter to the emergency room where there wasn’t much to do. The situation worsened to such an extent that the decision to put her on a respirator was necessary. A machine that kept her alive until a few days ago. On Sunday, in fact, Ally no longer showed any brain activity and her parents gave their consent to pull the plug on her. A painful decision but which had an important implication: the Behan spouses wanted to donate the organs of her daughter, thus saving 5 lives, including that of a little girl.
“Ally loved helping people and she did it even in her last hours of life by donating her organs which went on to save the lives of five different people, one of which is a little girl,” read a statement made by the parents. in the Daily Mail. “Anyone who knew Ally will know there are no words to describe the widespread devastation being felt with the loss of our beautiful girl,” the family concluded.
Alerted by what happened, the health authorities immediately warned the other festival participants, advising them to pay attention to one of these symptoms: dark purple skin rash, diarrhoea, fever accompanied by chills, fatigue, vomiting and severe pain. The important thing is not to underestimate them because the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium is a rare form but if neglected it can prove fatal.