NJ Nurse Loses Both Arms, Feet After Contracting Meningitis During Jersey Shore Vacation

A 37-year-old nurse in New Jersey had gotten both his arms and feet amputated after he contracted meningitis during a Jersey Shore vacation.

Jon, who worked as a nurse for a COVID-19 hospital ward in Gloucester County, had been infected with a rare case of strep meningitis over the summer. The nurse had spent seven weeks at Cooper University Hospital in Camden trying to be stable enough for treatment and surgery for meningitis.

However, his hands and feet had turned multiple colors from sepsis by the time he had become stable enough to receive medical treatment for strep meningitis. This led Jon and his wife Kay, 34, to choose to amputate his arms and feet to increase his chances of survival.

“We were very proactive about him getting the amputations, because we knew there was nothing that could be done. So when you know nothing can be done, you have to move forward. You can’t move forward until you get rid of dead stuff,” Kay, who is also a nurse, told NJ.com.

Streptococcal meningitis, also called strep meningitis, causes an inflammation of the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord of a patient. Most cases of meningitis recorded in the United States are caused by a viral infection.

While many cases of meningitis go away within a few weeks without treatment, others require emergency antibiotic treatments.

The most common signs of meningitis include sudden high fever, stiff neck, severe headache, nausea, vomiting, confusion, seizures, sensitivity to light and skin rash.

Bacterial meningitis can become fatal within days if the patient does not receive prompt antibiotic treatment. Delayed treatment also increased the chances of permanent brain damage and fatality, according to Mayo Clinic.

Jon is currently recovering from kidney failure in a rehabilitation center in Philadelphia nearly four months following the surgery. He is also being considered being matched for a hand transplant and being fitted with prosthetics to return to work at Jefferson Stratford Hospital.

Nurses at the hospital where Jon worked also launched a Go Fund Me campaign to raise $1 million for surgeries that may not be covered by his health insurance. As of Tuesday, the Go Fund Me account raised $63,229.