Caravanners have been reminded to ensure food prepared on holiday is thoroughly cooked, after a father of three was tragically paralysed by eating a pork chop cooked on a caravan stove.
Plant operator Darren Ashall from Chorley in Lancashire developed a potentially lethal brain disease which has hospitalised him for almost five months. According to the Mail the 46-year old was told by doctors he is “lucky to be alive” after his immune system was attacked by listeria meningitis. The disease has left an abscess on his brain.
Cooking on a caravan stove
Mr Ashall was first taken ill after cooking two pork chops on a caravan stove while away from home in Birmingham. He told the newspaper “I thought one of the chops wasn’t cooked properly. I regretted eating it straight away. I knew it was a mistake”.
“A month later I went to hospital thinking I was having a heart attack. After three days my face started drooping on one side and people thought I was having a stroke. I was treated for that, but nothing helped”.
The listeria bug contracted by Mr Ashall can stay inactive for up to 70 days, and when he first visited Chorley and South Ribble Hospital on February 11 he was sent home. However he was forced to return 48 hours later to intensive care after the condition worsened. His wife Paula, 43, and sons Sam, 19, and Jack, 21, were a constant presence at the hospital as his condition worsened.
Left paralysed by the condition, Mr Ashall needed a ventilator to help him breath. Yet the family experienced relief after a few weeks when he was transferred to the Royal Preston Hospital and began to regain his sight and voice.
The road ahead
Having stabilised, he told the newspaper of his battle which “absolutely drained me… I was too scared to close my eyes because I didn’t think I’d wake up again”. He added “The man I used to be is long gone”.
Darren Ashall will never fully recover from the effects of listeria meningitis, and will need antibiotics for the rest of his life. He will also need a motability scooter for longer distances.
He revealed ‘I feel so vulnerable now, and worried about what lies ahead, but this has really made me appreciate what I’ve got.
‘Life is so precious and fragile, and you could have a big house and a fancy car, but none of that matters at the end of the day.’
