A former model and racing driver has issued an urgent health warning to Australians after her daughter was struck by a fatal brain infection.
The 30-year-old daughter of Mount Gambier City Councillor Kate Amoroso was fighting for her life after contracting a serious meningitis infection caused by meningococcal B a week ago.
Tiana was rushed to the hospital, where she was immediately put into a coma and given treatment antibiotics to ‘fight the infection of her life’.
Since then she has been in intensive care for four days.
A week later, the South Australian councillor said her daughter was “finally awake and talking” but “not fully recovered yet”.
The mother of three used her daughter’s horrific experience as a warning to Australians to be on the lookout for extreme headaches and fever.
“Tiana was at work when she got sick in the morning and that same evening she was put to sleep in intensive care. That’s how quickly the meningococcal disease took hold of her body,” she wrote.
‘If South West Healthcare hadn’t reacted so quickly, she might not be here anymore.
Tiana 30 (pictured left with her mother, Councillor Amoroso, right) was at work in the morning, but that same night she was still in intensive care fighting for her life.
Ms Amoroso said her daughter Tiana (pictured) can now talk but is ‘still a long way from full recovery’
‘I know everyone loves her very much and is worried about her, but please try to have as little contact with her as possible and above all give her space by not visiting her at this time while she recovers, as she needs as little stimulation as possible at this time.
“There will be plenty of time to visit and check on her once she is home and rested. At this point we don’t know exactly when that will be.”
She added that Tiana was “doing better every day.”
In 2015, the councillor spoke candidly about how her ice addiction nearly destroyed her life two and a half years earlier.
The former racer has opened up about her troubled past and how she started experimenting with drugs in her 20s.
The Mount Gambier councillor (pictured) has warned others to go straight to the emergency room if they are experiencing extreme headaches and fever
Tiana’s severe meningitis infection in her brain was caused by meningococcal b (pictured)
After marrying a multimillionaire and moving to the Gold Coast, she turned to drugs in the late 2000s after suffering an injury.
When Ms Amoroso was 41, she barricaded herself in her Mount Gambier home, forcing police to close off her street, lure her outside and arrest her.
She said The Adelaide Advertiser She was completely distraught after eight days of ice injections, other medications and no sleep.
Ms. Amoroso said she was using about $2,000 worth of ice each week around the time of the incident.
Now a staunch anti-drug activist, she has two adult daughters and a 12-year-old son and has vowed to rebuild her life after it affected her relationship with her youngest child.