Glasgow student left as ‘helpless as a newborn baby’ after meningitis wiped her memory

After their daughter miraculously won a life or death battle against meningitis, Alison and Steven Scott thought the worst was over.

But nothing could have prepared them for the fight they faced once university student Lucy, 18, was brought out of her coma.

A cruel side effect of the disease had caused her whole life to be wiped from her memory.

Learning curve: Lucy, centre, with her sister Cara and mother Alison

 Lost memory: Young Lucy Scott with her mum

She couldn’t remember who she was or recognise any of her family or friends. A brain scan revealed scar tissue on the organ, which had caused her to forget her entire life and left her as ‘helpless as a newborn baby’.

Miss Scott has spent the past two years learning how to walk, talk, read, write and do everyday tasks she first learned as a child.

Yesterday she told the Daily Mail that at first she was ‘terrified’ when doctors told her what had happened. ‘I had no recollection of what my life had been like before,’ Miss Scott, now 20, said. ‘It was only from videos that I learnt that I was living at home with my mum, dad and sister and that I was at university. I didn’t know how to do anything – like eat, walk or talk.

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‘I was as helpless as a newborn baby. I even went out for a burger and attempted to eat the box rather than the burger.’

Miss Scott was in her second year studying Education and Psychology at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, and was living at home with her parents in the city, when she started feeling unwell in October 2014. 

All smiles: Lucy as a child, left, pictured with Cara and Alison

From left: Lucy, Cara and mother Alison take a selife by the sea

When Lucy came out of her coma she couldn’t remember who she was or recognise any of her family or friends

Her mother, a carer, said: ‘I tried not to worry. But the next day she felt sick and had a headache, so I thought she must have a bug. She had a terrible temperature. She couldn’t speak to me, she was delirious. 

‘I pulled back her covers and could see a rash on her toes.’ Mrs Scott, 49, rang for an ambulance but in the few minutes it took to arrive, the rash had already started to spread up her shins.

Doctors admitted the teenager to intensive care at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and she was put into an induced coma. They diagnosed a severe case of meningococcal B meningitis and warned her family that, at worst, it could be fatal or, at best, she could lose her limbs.

Mrs Scott said: ‘I howled in agony. Lucy was only 18 and had her whole life ahead of her.’

A brain scan revealed scar tissue on the organ, which had caused her to forget her entire life and left her as ‘helpless as a newborn baby’

Lucy (stands centre back) with sister Cara (left), baby cousin Emma, and mother Alison

Miss Scott has spent the past two years learning how to walk, talk, read, write and do everyday tasks she first learned as a child

But after seven critical days, the rash finally began to fade. Tests revealed she was clear of the disease but doctors revealed they had found scar tissue on her brain.

When they brought Miss Scott out of the coma she recognised the faces of her mother and father, 48, who works for Royal Mail, and older sister Cara, 22, but had no idea who they were. ‘It was devastating,’ Mrs Scott said. 

‘It had been agony watching her battle through meningitis, (but) to realise that she didn’t even know who we all were when she finally awoke from her coma was just heartbreaking.’

Cara looks at baby sister Lucy with mother Alison

Miss Scott was in her second year studying Education and Psychology at Strathclyde University, Glasgow when she started feeling unwell in October 2014

Doctors showed Miss Scott videos of her life and she was admitted to a rehabilitation centre. Over the next 12 months she learnt how to walk, talk and do basic tasks.

Mrs Scott said: ‘We constantly decorated her room too, with lots of photos of things that she had done in the 18 years of her life just so we could show her who she had been. Lucy does get very tired, and the memory of her first 18 years has never come back. But she’s defied doctors’ bleakest predictions.’

Miss Scott added: ‘It’s very difficult to act like who I was before, as I don’t know who I was. And I’m working hard to regain the skills and knowledge that I had before.’

• For more information about the symptoms of meningitis visit www.meningitisnow.org

Doctors showed Miss Scott videos of her life and she was admitted to a rehabilitation centre. Over the next 12 months she learnt how to walk, talk and do basic tasks