‘I thought I was going to die’ - University student shares frightening experience after being affected by dengue

After a battle with dengue haemorrhagic fever, Dujana Menzie still cannot remember patches of the past three weeks.

Menzie, 19, attends the University of the West Indies, reading for a bachelor's degree in economics and now has had to be playing catch-up after missing three weeks of school.

"Everything is all over the place, my mommy is really trying. UWI is giving me hell to get exemptions. The same clinic that I went to when I was sick, they are not understanding how I feel because I told them I was not in the hospital for long. They don't understand that I am trying to recuperate, do course assignments that I missed, to come back. It is just not nice to deal with it. I don't think I am 100 per cent back. I have problems concentrating and I have to do exams. I don't think that is fair but I have to because if I don't, all that money would go down the drain," she said.

She told THE WEEKEND STAR that she woke up one day feeling pain and took some tablets; but the pain remained.

A couple of days later, she went home to her mother in Old Harbour, St Catherine. Tests were done but the results were taking too long to come back.

So she went elsewhere, and found out that she had the more severe dengue haemorrhagic fever.

She was given tablets, but because of a weakened immune system, she contracted a virus that started to attack her body.

As a result, her brain became swollen and she started to forget things. The aspiring economist said for some time, she thought she was going to die because of the immense pain, vomiting and weakness.

But she pulled through with the help of her mother and other family members.

"To feel better, I had to take panadol, vitamin C and Pharma cold and flu before I reached the clinic. When I went there, I had a 105 degree fever. I was on a drip because I couldn't eat anything but I was vomiting. The only thing I took in was Gatorade and I vomited it up," she said.

Luckily, her mother is a nurse and could put her on a drip at home, but after consulting with the UWI Clinic, she was referred to the University Hospital where many other tests were done.

She told THE WEEKEND STAR that she remembered being in a wheelchair in the hospital's Accident and Emergency area, but apart from hearing about the tests, there is not much she recalls.

"I was so scared; I thought I was going to die. I felt so weak like I just wanted to stop. I kept on asking my mommy: 'Am I going to be okay? Please tell me, I am going to be okay'. When they did the test at UWI, they said it was not dengue as I had it but I did not have it anymore, so they were trying to find out what was happening. Scans came back to say I had a swelling in the brain and I needed to do a lumbar puncture," she said.

"I am really glad that I am here. The experience was not nice. I would not wish it on anybody. Even though anything can happen to you, it was really frightening," she said. "I didn't know that I was going to be okay."