Speed of daughter's death stuns family

On Tuesday night, Frances King was chatting to cricket friends about her bowling form. By Thursday morning she was dead.

King's friends and family are in shock struggling to deal with the 22-year-old cricket star's tragic death from meningococcal meningitis.

"It's absolutely devastating. It hasn't sunk in," said father Jerome.

Mother Christine cannot explain why she read a recent Listener article about meningitis for a second time, taking particular note of the telltale symptoms. But it was that story that prompted her to take her daughter to the doctor when she complained of a headache and vomiting on Wednesday.

The Porirua GP quickly diagnosed meningitis and King was rushed to hospital. But despite the early diagnosis and treatment, King died in Wellington Hospital early the next morning.

"They did everything right but she just could not fight it," Mrs King said.

The onset of the disease was very sudden. When Wellington and New Zealand team-mate and close friend Anna Corbin spoke to King on Tuesday night she was fighting fit.

"I asked how her bowling was going and she said, 'There are still a few technical things niggling me'. She was a real perfectionist."

When King got up at 8am the next morning she told her mother she was not feeling well. Twelve hours later she was unconscious and critically ill in Wellington Hospital.

King lived for cricket and her dream was to play for New Zealand in the World Cup and win, Mr King said.

Corbin said the Wellington team was devastated by her loss. King would be remembered for her ability to lose things, as well as her bowling.

"Frankie was always losing her wallet or her phone. She would pack her cricket bag with two left cricket shoes."

When the team toured England last year, the tour manager received strict instructions not to let King's passport out of sight.

"They knew she would lose it," Mrs King laughed.

Mrs King said she would miss reading about her daughter's cricketing success in the paper and skiting to friends about it, which her modest daughter hated.

She urged all parents to be aware of meningitis symptoms and not to hesitate before taking a child or friend to the doctor.

King's death was the third from meningitis in the Wellington region in three months.

Medical officer of health Stephen Palmer said while this was unusual there was no obvious connection between the deaths.

Public health had offered antibiotics to 17 people who had close contact with King.

Little is known about why people get meningitis. Some carry the bacteria without any illness while others become violently ill, Dr Palmer said.

Fewer than 5 per cent of meningitis cases result in death, but even with the best medical care a tragedy can still occur.



King's funeral will be at Our Lady of Fatima in Tawa on Monday at 11am.



* A baby in the greater Dunedin area has died from meningococcal disease, the first death in Otago from the disease this year.

The baby died this month. Those people who had been in close contact with the baby had been contacted and given antibiotics if necessary, Otago District Health Board spokesmen confirmed yesterday.