A mother is urging others to be cautious after her daughter slipped into a coma following a meningitis infection that doctors believe may have been linked to sharing a vape with other people.
Sian Alderton became seriously unwell after one of her first nights out at a nightclub in October 2024. The 18-year-old began vomiting and later developed a rash once she got home.
After she was taken to hospital, clinicians diagnosed bacterial meningitis B. As her condition rapidly worsened, she was placed into a medically induced coma. Because the infection is typically spread through saliva droplets, medical staff suspected that sharing a vape could have been how she was exposed.
Her mother, Kerrie Durrant, has described the terrifying speed at which things changed, saying doctors warned that Sian might not wake up and could die within a day.
Kerrie, 37, from Norwich, England, explained that the evening initially seemed normal, aside from Sian feeling under the weather—until the symptoms began to look far more serious than a typical illness.
She said: “We had a Chinese and we ate normally. At about 8pm she said ‘mum, I don’t feel well’. She wanted to get into my bed – she never wants to get into my bed when she’s ill, so she was quite clingy.
“Through the night, I could hear her waking up. From about 8pm to 5.30/6 in the morning she slept, apart from being sick. I kept an eye on her throughout the day and I noticed she wasn’t perking up.
“She was drinking like a goldfish. I said ‘let’s go to the toilet.’ She got up and she couldn’t move – she was aching.
“She crawled to the bathroom. That was the moment I said: ‘hang on a minute, something’s not right’.”
Kerrie took her to hospital, where Sian was put into a coma. Despite fears she wouldn’t survive the day, Sian recovered and avoided major complications, including lasting brain damage.
Her story comes as meningitis B continues to raise alarm in the UK. In recent weeks, two other teenagers have died from the disease, and a larger outbreak linked to a nightclub in Kent has reportedly led to more than 50 cases.
As with Sian’s case, public health experts are looking into whether sharing vapes could have played a role in the spread, particularly among young people.
Now 19, Sian has spoken about what happened as the new outbreak draws attention. She shared: “I did share a vape with multiple people on that night out, so we believe that’s where I would have gotten it from.
“I haven’t gone on any nights out since then – the most I’ve had the courage to do is go to a pub for maybe an or hour or two, but other than that I haven’t wanted to go out since.
“It hasn’t put me off vapes, though I wouldn’t share with anybody any more.
“If someone you know has a ‘sickness bug’, but they are also quite delirious or more aggressive than usual, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
“Get it checked ASAP – sometimes the rash doesn’t even appear on people, so you wouldn’t have thought they’d be in a life or death situation.”
Mom Kerrie added: “People need to be aware it affects anyone.
“Anyone can get it, it doesn’t matter whether you’re fit and healthy, if it wants to get you, it will.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, early meningitis symptoms can resemble the flu and may develop over the course of several hours or a few days.
In people aged two and older, a meningitis infection could appear as: