Sasha Obama was just a few months old when Barack and Michelle Obama had to rush her to the emergency room. “I will never forget. It was a day when, you know, one hour she was fine, she was normal, she was happy, doing everything I was used to her doing and the next hour she was crying inconsolably, and that just wasn’t like her,” the former first lady said on Al Sharpton’s radio show in 2013, NBC News reported. Michelle tried feeding, soothing, and rocking, but nothing worked.
The Obamas called their pediatrician, who told them to seek immediate help. “As it turned out, she had meningitis,” she explained. Meningitis, an infection that affects the membranes around the brain and spinal cord, can be serious and even cause death, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Seeking help promptly is imperative. Sasha was diagnosed after receiving a spinal tap, a moment Barack described as the hardest in his life.
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The world seemed to stop, and nothing else around him mattered. “Your world narrows to this very small point,” the former president said in a 2012 campaign video, as noted by Politico. Michelle and Barack know their privilege played a big role. “If we hadn’t had insurance, and access to a pediatrician, and access to a hospital where we didn’t have to worry about the cost of care … there’s no telling what the outcome would’ve been,” Michelle said on Al Sharpton’s radio show.
