Bachelor Nation's Daisy Kent Details Near-Fatal Battle With Meningitis

Years before she competed on The Bachelor, Daisy Kent was diagnosed with meningitis, which almost killed her.

It was one of several health battles the 25-year-old has faced, in addition to her struggles with Lyme disease and Ménière’s disease, which she spoke about with season 28 star Joey Graziadei on the dating show.

Now, Kent is sharing more details about contracting meningitis—which is caused by inflammation of tissues near the brain and spinal cord—when she was a 19-year-old freshman at San Diego State University.

"I had this shocking pain going down my spine; I felt like knives were cutting into my back and down my neck,” the Minnesota-born influencer recalled to Us Weekly in an interview published July 10. “There was a point where they didn’t think I was gonna make it."

Kent was one of several students at the college who was infected in 2017.

"I went to bed at midnight and I had a little bit of a headache, and then I woke up at like probably 3 a.m. and my head was pounding, so I took a bunch of Tylenol," she said in a 2023 TikTok video. "My head was throbbing so bad, I couldn't even open my eyes."

Kent made it to class, where she felt a "shocking pain" down her spine when she tried to turn her head. She went to the hospital but was told she only had a migraine, so she went back to her dorm.

Then her condition got rapidly worse. "I was laying in my bed and all of a sudden, I physically could not move like any part of my body," Kent said in her TikTok. "So a guy that lived on my floor picked me up, carried me downstairs and my roommate and her brother brought me to a different hospital."

At the second medical center, the Minnesota native underwent medical tests while still being unable to move her body. "Then a doctor comes back in and he's in like a full HAZMAT suit and he's like, 'Everyone has to clear this room.'"

Then things got rapidly worse. "I was laying in my bed and all of a sudden, I physically could not move like any part of my body," Kent said. "So a guy that lived on my floor picked me up, carried me downstairs and my roommate and her brother brought me to a different hospital."

At the second medical center, the reality star underwent medical tests while still being unable to move her body. "Then a doctor comes back in and he's in like a full HAZMAT suit and he's like, 'Everyone has to clear this room.'"

She underwent a spinal tap and after further testing showed she indeed had meningitis, she was treated in the ICU. "They were giving me so much morphine," she recalled, "And literally, nothing would stop the pain. I've never been in that much pain in my life. I literally thought I was going to die."

At one point, she thought she did when she the pain made her lose consciousness. "Everything goes completely black," she said, "and I was like, 'I just died.'"

Meanwhile, doctors explained the situation to her mother. "They sit her down and they tell her I'm super sick,” Kent said, “and my white blood cell count is so high that there's a possibility I might not make it."

With the help of antibiotics, Kent recovered. However, the ordeal took a large toll on her body. "I literally lost 17 pounds in five days," she recalled. "I went home and when my little sister hugged me, she thought I was gonna snap in half. I was so weak, I couldn't even walk up the steps or walk 10 feet."

Days later, she had to be readmitted to the hospital after developing an infection and spent another week there. "But I made it." she said. "I didn't die. I'm here."