IT is just under three months' since 15-year-old Triona Donovan died from meningitis. The shock and confusion are still all too evident on the faces of her parents, P.J. and Ina.
Some days, says Ina, her brain simply refuses to register the fact that her youngest child is no longer alive. "We are just shattered," says P.J., looking up at a photograph of, a smiling Triona on the wall in their sittingroom. "She would have been 16 last Monday week."
On April 5th Triona, an active, lively and popular teenager, had been in that same room saying she did not feel well. However she had been really looking forward to playing a football match with the local Cahirciveen women's team the following day and told her parents that she would be all right.
P.J. was blackguarding her in the evening and said he was going to call the doctor and she said "No way dad, I'm going to play football tomorrow." All she wanted was 7-Up. On Saturday morning she had taken two pain killers saying she was feeling tired and had a pain in her head," Ina says.
During the day she watched television and slept a little but made no complaints about feeling worse. Around 8.30 p.m. she got up to watch television with her brother Padraig (18). As they were sitting there, a bruise-like rash developed on Triona's forehead.
"Padraig called us and I ran up the stairs," says Ina. "Then I called the doctor and P.J. called me to come back up quickly. When I went back up her face and hands and legs were going black and blue before my eyes. I had a damp cloth and she kept wanting it colder and colder. She said "Cuddle me Mam" but then told me not to because she said she was afraid I might get whatever it was."
When the doctor came he rang the ambulance. He told her parents he hoped it was a virus and if it was not it was something serious. At 9.50 p.m. Triona left the house for the hour-long journey to Tralee, General Hospital. During that time she was communicating perfectly. Once she arrived at the hospital they took blood tests.
But, as P.J. explains, time had run out. "While they were waiting for the results of the blood tests she said to me "Dad, I might be home yet with you tonight and get to play the football match." But then her head began shaking and I ran straight for the doctor. We know now that was bleeding in the brain. They took her into intensive care and tried to get spinal fluid but the pressure was too low. They gave her massive doses of antibiotics. About 5 a.m. her kidneys started operating normally again and the staff said that was a plus but there were a lot of other minuses. They told us to wait for 24 hours. She was black and blue all over.
At 11 a.m. on Sunday when the couple went to Mass, Triona was in a stable condition and had been able to register their voices. But afterwards they noticed a deterioration.
The doctor came in at 1 p.m. and asked us if we had noticed a change. We said we had, it was the deterioration of the brain. Then they changed the antibiotic. They kept asking us if she had a sore throat or what she had eaten but we couldn't come up with anything. They just kept saying to us that she was a very sick child, that it was the worst case they had ever seen, it was so quick. They were, bamboozled that she had shown no symptoms before, says Ina.
At 7.15 p.m. Triona died little more than 24 hours after she had first complained of having a headache and feeling tired. On the previous Friday night she had attended a football match.
"I'd say the first six weeks or so we just felt shock and disbelief. You just do not believe it can happen. She had been running around the place and so full of life. But then the numbness starts to melt away like ice and you have to face it. Some of the other children don't want to talk about it or seem to want to pretend it did not happen. Sometimes they will come and say how they feel. There is still a feeling that it is just not true," says Ina, speaking of her other five children - John, Padraig, Bernard, Christopher and Sandra.
Both pay tribute to the incredible support they received from the local community. "The whole town just went into shock. The support has been unbelievable.
Already they are building up a scrapbook which includes photographs and other mementos, including those from a three-week work placement Triona did in Templemore Garda Training College. "While she was there she made so many friends," says P.J., smiling at the memory. "She was invited to a 21st and a wedding."
Triona was a Transition Year student and her school mates planted a tree recently in her memory. When Scoil Ui Chonaill won the All-Ireland Vocational Schools final, team captain John Alan O'Sullivan dedicated the win to Triona who had died earlier that week.