Advocate Profile, Anna Sullivan

Anna’s husband, Carl, was a healthy, athletic freshman in high school when he almost lost his life to meningococcal disease. In 2003, Carl came home from a football game complaining that he didn’t feel well. Many of Carl’s teammates had been sick with the flu, so Carl assumed he had just caught the bug. The next day, he became disoriented and developed purple splotches all over his face and arms. He was rushed to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with meningococcal disease. As a result of the infection, Carl had to undergo amputation of both of his feet and three of his fingers. It was four years before he could walk again. Anna and Carl live together in Seattle.