Eilleen and John Boyle

Boyle’s Story

Eilleen and John’s daughter, Caitlin, was a 19-year-old college student when she began feeling ill. She had a headache and neck pain, but they thought Caitlin couldn’t have meningitis because she had been vaccinated. Within hours, Caitlin was on a respirator, and after two days in a coma, she passed away from serogroup B meningococcal disease.

Eilleen and John didn’t know that, even though Caitlin was vaccinated, she wasn’t protected against all of the strains of meningococcal disease. At that time, there was no vaccine available to prevent serogroup B disease. There is now. They work with NMA to educate other families about meningitis symptoms and prevention.

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