Cerebral Malaria And Mental Confusion Case Study

I had an encounter with cerebral malaria in April 2024.

Before then, I had treated malaria monthly for three months: January to March 2024.

I treated malaria once in January 2024, once in February 2024, and twice in March 2024. That is, a total of four times in three months.

In April 2024, I noticed I was experiencing mental confusion.

For example, it often took me about an hour to brush my teeth because of persistent confusion and forgetfulness.

First, I would pick up my toothbrush. Then I would realise that I didn’t take the toothpaste. Then I will drop the toothbrush and start looking for the tooth paste.

When I finally found the tooth paste, I would start looking for the tooth brush. And when I finally found the tooth brush, I would start looking for the tooth paste I dropped somewhere while looking for the tooth brush.

That is how I would walk in cycles for one whole hour before I would finally have both toothbrush and tooth paste in my hands.

That was frustrating!

Guess what.

That was just the beginning.

Shortly thereafter, I started having vivid nightmares… terrifying dreams that frightened even me, someone who is not easily frightened.

Usually, I wake up between 5am to 5:30am every working day to start preparing for work.

However, this time I was moving from one nightmare to another nightmare, to another nightmare, and still another nightmare.

Consequently, my wake up time moved from 5:30am to 10am.

I was waking up by 10am almost every day in April 2024. And everywhere would be dead quiet when I woke up because kids have gone to school, and working men and women have gone to their places of work or business.

“What is happening to me?” I wondered.

I dreaded going to sleep.

On top of that, I had no desire to do anything. I had no desire to…

> Go to work
> Play music
> Sing (my favourite hobby)
> Cook
> And wash or clean

When I woke up, I would take a chair and sit within my premises wearing just boxers; no shirt, no trousers.

When I got tired of sitting, I would go inside and lie down. And when I got tired of lying down, I would come outside and sit.

I didn’t go anywhere the whole of April 2024.

I was in a confused state.

The malaria parasite got to my brain, and put me in a state of cognitive disconnection.

My wife rushed me to a private hospital on April 30, 2024 when I became partially unconscious.

I went completely unconscious as the Uber driver pulled up in front of the private hospital in Lagos Nigeria.

The last thing I heard before becoming unconscious was someone shouting:

“It’s an emergency! It’s an emergency! It’s a stroke!”

I spent 17 days in the hospital.

When I returned home after being discharged from the hospital, my wife told me she was in the emergency ward with me.

She said at a point, I had seizures and I was foaming in the mouth.

Back to my story.

By the next day, May 1st 2024, the private hospital diagnosed me as having infection in my brain.

However, they told my wife they needed to transfer me to another hospital because beds were not available at the time in the ward where brain issues were treated.

So I was transferred to a government hospital somewhere in Lagos Nigeria.

My mental confusion was so bad that when I became conscious, I couldn’t recognise my wife.

As she walked towards my hospital bed, I thought to myself, this woman looks like my wife.

When she stopped by my bed I asked her:

“Are you my wife?”

Guess what.

I still had mental confusion even after I was discharged from the government hospital 17 days after I was first admitted.

My wife ordered an Uber ride to take us from the hospital to our home.

During the ride, she gave me bottled water to drink. She said I needed to drink a lot of water to ease the pain I felt when I urinated.

You know what?

I was afraid to drink the water because I was still not sure she was my wife.

I said to myself:

“This woman could be a kidnapper. She might just kidnap me if I end up sleeping off after drinking this water”.

So I didn’t drink the water even though I was very thirsty.

On top of that, I was afraid to sleep even though I was feeling sleepy.

I wondered in silence:

“Do these people really know my house?”

Well, I didn’t have to wait long. The Uber driver pulled up in front of my house about an hour and a half later.

Then I thought to myself:

“Oh, it looks like they know my house!”

The next day, as we sat opposite each other within our premises, I asked my wife:

“Are you my wife?”

Shocking, right?

Yes, even though I had received full treatment for the mental confusion caused by cerebral malaria, I was still in a confused state.