Advocate Profile, Shaquille Hodge, Danielle Hodge and Maritza Gonzales

One morning in 2018 during a family vacation, Shaquille’s wife Percilla, mother of three young children, including a newborn, awoke with severe headaches, nausea, vomiting and confusion. As her condition worsened, Shaquille rushed her to the hospital, where doctors sedated her and performed a spinal tap to confirm that she had bacterial meningitis. Unfortunately she never awakened after the spinal tap.

Percilla’s mother-in-law Danielle, sister-in-law Maritza, and Shaquille reached out to NMA to learn more about bacterial meningitis and became advocates to raise awareness of the importance of meningococcal vaccination in adolescents; they also established the PAMAH Foundation in honor of Percilla and to spread awareness of the disease and share her story.