Lillian Meadows

 

Lillian Meadows was a fourth year undergraduate at the University of New Mexico and a part of the institution's pharmaceutical research initiative. She was one of a group of students chosend to spend the summer of 2014 at a research facility in Brazil. During her stay there, some of her duties included collection of plants, animals and insects for investigation for antibiotic, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties. While in Brazil, she lived in a dorm building with bathroom facilities located outside and where most bathing took place in a nearby lake. The dorms were not air conditioned and the occupants often slept with doors and windows open, allowing an array of insects into the rooms. In order to reduce the amount if insect bites, they were provided with mosquito netting and pyrethrin-based sprays which were designed to kill and repel any biting insects. Despite the risks involved with not using these precautions, Lillian and a few other participants decided not to use the pesticide as needed because of the dangers of introducing pesticides into the environment. Thus, they used the pyrethrin sprayers only a total of three times over the course of their stay in Brazil. Lillian, also not a big fan or mosquito netting, slept many nights without using them and ended up with a lot of insect bites most likely sustained while she was asleep or during her hikes. She was given some tropical treatments that helped with the sting of the insects. After her stay in Brazil, Lillian returned home to the University of New Mexico and began her classes on August 21, which were mostly research and field based so she spent sometime at the Cibola National Forest, Albuquerque, NM.  On August 28th, Lillian began to show symptoms of an unknown disease and was treated with some antibiotics which she slept off. Her condition got worse and she checked into the hospital on September 1, 2014. She was treated with IV fluids and antibiotics but showed no changes. She became unconscious the next day and was gived steroids, fluids, and some IV antiviral agents. Her condition only became worse and she gave in to the infection on 09/05/2014.