I went to bed with a sore ear, meningitis put me in a coma
BBCA man who developed bacterial meningitis in January 2026 said it was "mind-blowing how it just happened" but he was "very grateful to be alive".
Mark McNamee did not know he had meningitis until he woke up in hospital after being in an induced coma.
He had gone to bed with a sore ear and a fever.
"I still can't get my head around it," he said. "For just a simple ear infection to basically, it's nearly destroyed your life for you."
The UK Health Security Agency has said 29 cases of confirmed or probable meningitis have now been recorded linked to the Kent outbreak.
When Mark developed meningitis in January, he spent six days in a coma and two weeks in ICU in the South West Acute Hospital (Swah) in Enniskillen in County Fermanagh.
He didn't develop a rash.
After an earache, his symptoms were fever, headaches, dizziness, vomiting and confusion.
The father-of-five from Omagh in County Tyrone, also developed encephalitis, secondary to the meningitis, but fought through it all.
"It was very scary because I know how fatal meningitis can be," he said.
"But the fact that it had only started with a sore ear, I just couldn't believe it.
"And then now with all these outbreaks over in England it's very shocking to hear."
Mark said he was "grateful to be alive and for my family" but added that he could not do many of the things he used to.
"It's just mad how quick it just came on," he added.
His wife Ellen said watching her husband go through this at the age of 48 was "very scary".
"When I look back now and realise how severe things were, I think at the time I was on autopilot," she said.
"The first three days I was just living in a nightmare because part of me was thinking I was going to be having to rear my children on my own.
"To be told that the strain he had was the most severe strain, it was scary. It was very scary."
Mark had been blue-lighted by ambulance to Swah.
Ellen thought he was showing signs of sepsis but "meningitis never once came into my head".
A CT scan showed inflammation of the brain, and he was seriously ill.
But she was shocked when results came back that Mark had bacterial meningitis.
"People said to me, 'But only children get that', and I thought that too," Ellen said.
"I've never heard of an adult getting bacterial meningitis."
Rash was an absent meningitis symptom
Ellen had been very aware of symptoms but said one of the symptoms people were told to look out for was a rash, but her husband did not have one.
"They told me in the hospital that a rash doesn't always appear," Ellen said.
"They checked Mark every day for a rash, but it never appeared.
"So that's one symptom that not everybody gets is the rash, and that's one of symptoms that people seem so very focused on."
Mark had other symptoms such as a headache and a sore neck, sensitivity to bright lights and confusion.
It took time to get his infection levels under control and for him to start to recover even when he was brought out of the coma.
"We didn't know if Mark was going to come out of it at all," Ellen said.
"While he was in the coma we just were taking it day by day."
She was told doctors would not know if there was any brain damage until Mark was awake and out of the coma, but that took time as he did not respond as well as doctors hoped when he came round.
"I remember leaving hospital that day just so deflated because I just didn't know how Mark was going to be because at that stage he was just lying awake, he wasn't moving, he wasn't moving his arms, his hands," Ellen said.
"He wasn't nodding. He wasn't talking. He was doing nothing, just looking. And the staff were worried about that as well."
She said that for the first few days after he came out of the coma, Mark was "like somebody with severe Alzheimer's".
"It was very scary. It was just a matter of taking every day as it came just.
"I've never prayed so hard in all my life."
Mark said he felt very lucky to pull through.
But bacterial meningitis has had an impact on his memory, eyesight, balance, and sleep, which he said was very frustrating.
He still gets severe headaches at times, and his hearing is sensitive.
He is hoping to be able to go back to work as an engineer but it is still too early to know if that will be possible.
"I'm just trying to keep positive because I do like to be out and about and being with people.
"I like my job, but I just have to take it day by day to see what happens."
Ellen said what happened to Mark has had "a big impact on our family, mentally and just in every way".
She said her husband was "very wary of the children being sick" and "his anxiety had heightened a lot, but that they were both thankful to the staff in Swah".