Family's warning after putting son's symptoms down to 'freshers flu' before he died weeks later
A 21-year-old has died from a serious illness weeks after his family put his symptoms down to 'freshers flu'.
Lucas Martin had just graduated from the University of Liverpool when he caught an initial viral infection. After five days of feeling unwell, his dad Brett heard him 'mumbling and not making sense' on the phone.
The family were out of town and rushed home when the graduate was staying his parent's Isle of Man home when his uncle was sent round to find him in an 'awful state'.
Lucas was then to hospital where he was diagnosed with meningitis and put in an induced coma. He sadly passed away just days later on 12 September 2023.
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His brother Connor, who is is now raising awareness around meningitis, said 'we all thought he had the equivalent of 'freshers flu', a term describing illnesses students sometimes get during the first few weeks of a new university year.
"He was up in his room a lot of the time and we weren't monitoring him on a super close basis unfortunately," he said.
"We and he just assumed he had a bad bout of the flu.
"He would go up and down and we'd think he was on the mend and then he'd regress again, but never to a point where we were seriously concerned.
"There's a set list of symptoms with meningitis and he didn't have the rash or an aversion to light - the rest are typical flu symptoms."
The family were 'in denial' after Lucas was diagnosed with meningitis, a serious disease where there is inflammation of the meninges, caused by a viral or bacterial infection. Symptoms include headache, fever, sensitivity to light, and muscular rigidity.
Connor said: "We all rushed home and we got told it could have been meningitis and I think we were in denial that was life-threatening.
"But that was it, none of us ever spoke to him again.
"He was put in an induced coma and on life support as there was fluid on the brain.
"It was a horrific ordeal for all of us.
"I think the one thing that could have maybe saved him was just us insisting that it could be something else - it didn't really close our minds until he was in the ambulance.
"I want kids of university age to have it in the back of their minds that if they get poorly don't just always be dismissive.
"If you're worried, take action.
"We work hard not to blame ourselves in any way.
"It's not like we had a moment where we thought it was meningitis, and we didn't act on it, we just didn't think of it."
Anish Vij