But we didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.’Īfter finding out that it was, in fact, vasculitis that had caused their terrible loss, Adrienne and Grant began to research the condition. 'We could see the monitors around her bed in intensive care and we knew she wasn’t going to make it. ‘She was still in no doubt that she’d get better and we told her she’d be fine and we’d see her in a few hours. ‘The doctor explained to Lauren that she’d have to be put in a coma to be put on a ventilator and Lauren asked how long she’d be out for. But she was getting very tired and sleepy. ‘She was trying so hard to get herself better, using the oxygen mask to help. The tissue of Lauren's lungs had been so badly damaged that there was only a slim chance of survival 'She said: “What’s wrong with me?” and I said: “You’ve got pneumonia, it’ll be all right.” 'By this time she had been taken down to intensive care and when I walked in I locked eyes with her but I couldn’t show how I felt, I couldn’t cry. ‘We didn’t want Lauren to know how seriously ill she was. ‘It was totally out of the blue and we were devastated,’ Adrienne recalls. ‘But when the nurse took her pulse and heart rate, we were suddenly taken into another room and within minutes they started treating her for pneumonia.’Īfter a fraught overnight stay with tests carried out, Adrienne and Grant were given devastating news: the tissue of Lauren’s lungs had been so badly damaged that there was only a slim chance of survival. ‘When we got to the hospital Lauren was feeling quite breathless, but she was able to walk in on her own and we didn’t think there was anything badly wrong,’ says Adrienne. In fact, vasculitis had taken hold: Lauren still suffered sore throats and also developed small lesions on her face that looked like acne, but was probably the skin rash known to be a sign of vasculitis.īut when she developed the cough ten days before she died, there were still no alarm bells ringing. She had her tonsils removed and the family thought the problem would be solved once and for all. However, she now seemed to succumb more than usual to any bug doing the rounds, and also suffered frequent attacks of tonsillitis.Īntibiotics would kill off the infections, but it wasn’t long before Lauren was again unwell, averaging around one bout of tonsillitis every two months. ‘She’d missed a whole term of school and couldn’t wait to get back there,’ says Adrienne. Then, when she was 13, she came down with glandular fever. ‘She would get colds and earaches and she’d often have tonsillitis - but she’d soon get over them.’ Her mother Adrienne says Lauren started to suffer frequent bugs from the age of 11. Professor Chakravarty believes the glandular fever Lauren suffered at 13 is likely to have been the trigger for her vasculitis. With Lauren’s form, patients can sometimes develop symptoms such as blocked sinuses or nose, and a nosebleed. Other symptoms to look for are persistent ear, nose and throat infections. This may or may not be itchy, and usually affects the upper or lower limbs or the whole body. Sometimes this may be the only symptom.Īs well as excessive tiredness, it can produce an acne-like rash caused by inflammation of the blood vessels beneath the skin. ‘One of the most common symptoms in any form of vasculitis is tiredness, as any inflammation causes this,’ says Professor Chakravarty. Symptoms can come on quickly, or take up to eight weeks to appear. This is because the drugs can induce ‘antigenic challenge’, where the body’s antibodies interact with the drug, damaging the inside lining of the vessels. ‘It can be any type of preceding fever or infection which cause inflammation in the body, or in rare circumstances, treatment with drugs such as antibiotics,’ says Professor Chakravarty. Chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Crohn’s disease are often the underlying cause, but viral infections can also trigger vasculitis. The condition often arises as a result of a secondary infection. ‘That’s why vasculitis is known as a multi-system disease.’ ‘Any organ in the human body can be affected by vasculitis, because every one of them has a blood supply,’ explains Professor Kuntal Chakravarty, a rheumatologist at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, Essex. She loved life and always had a smile on her face,' said her mother AdrienneĪround a fifth of those with this form die within year and a quarter are dead within five years, which is why early diagnosis is vital.
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