Michael Rosen appeared on Good Morning Britain to urge people to ‘look everywhere’ for the rash associated with meningitis, after his son died from the infection in 1999.
The author, 79, of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, described the heartbreaking morning he walked into his 18-year-old son Eddie’s bedroom to find he had died in the night.
It’s a devastating loss he has written about in Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. Having come down with what appeared to be flu the night before, Rosen said he only learned Eddie had the telltale rash after his death, as it had been in his armpits.
‘It looked like flu, and people talk about the rash and assume it’s visible, that it’s on your arms or on your chest,’ Rosen said.
‘By and large, when somebody’s ill, you don’t say, “Let me look at your armpits”, and with teenagers you don’t say, “Let me look in your groin”, because it’s a private matter, but it can also appear on the soles of your feet.’
Sitting in the ITV studio with Susanna Reid and Ed Balls, he said: ‘The rash, look everywhere if there’s any doubt whatsoever. Look everywhere.
‘Don’t be intrusive, obviously, but armpits, not so intrusive, ask your teenagers to look at their groin, and the glass test is absolutely effective.’
The glass test is a way the NHS advises people to check whether a rash is meningitis, by firmly pressing a glass against a skin rash. If it does not fade or disappear, then call 999.
It comes amid an outbreak of meningitis in Kent, after what has been described as a super-spreader event at a Canterbury nightclub. There are 20 confirmed cases and two people have died from the infection.
What are the symptoms of meningitis?
The NHS says meningitis is most common in babies, young children, teenagers and young adults. It can be very serious if not treated quickly.
Symptoms include a high temperature, being sick, a headache, a rash, a stiff neck, a dislike of bright lights, drowsiness or unresponsiveness and seizures, according to the NHS.
Rosen described Eddie’s death as ‘abrupt and terrifying’, but said he likes to think his loss was a ‘contributing factor’ for the rollout the same year of the MenC vaccine. The jab fights the C variant of meningitis, which is what Eddie died from.
He said: ‘It really was that quick and if I dare say, simple. I went in in the morning and he was lying on his back.
‘I said, “Eddie, I’ve got to go to work now, Eddie”. He didn’t reply and then I felt him and immediately realised he was dead.
‘Hoping that he wasn’t, (I) rang for the ambulance guys to come over, they told me to pull him out of the bed, and he had rigor mortis by then.
‘His arm was in the air. I pulled him onto the floor, some fluid came out of his mouth, and then the ambulance guys arrived about four or five minutes later, immediately said he’s dead. That was that.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 from 6am.
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