Advocate Profile, Amanda Richter

Amanda was studying abroad in Ireland during her junior year of college when she started feeling feverish one night. She assumed that she’d gotten sick with the flu, but she soon developed a purple rash all over her body and went into septic shock caused by the B strain of bacterial meningitis. Ultimately, Amanda spent 18 days in a coma, and she remained in the hospital for seven weeks. Amanda had to re-learn how to walk and has since had several surgeries on her legs and feet to address the foot drop that meningitis caused. She now lives in Chicago with her husband and two daughters.