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Northland teen warns others to know signs of toxic shock syndrome after her frightening experience

Grace Morgan was admitted to hospital with a wide range of symptoms, which doctors initially thought could be measles

A Northland teenager is urging others to become more familiar with the symptoms of toxic shock syndrome associated with tampon use after her own life was put at risk last year.

Grace Morgan, 16, was diagnosed with the potentially-fatal illness in July.

She's one of several girls who have come forward after Hamilton teen Chloe Jordan's story emerged in the past two weeks.

Grace, a Whangarei student, was hospitalised for five days suffering kidney, heart and liver failure.

Chloe Jordan is back home after a week in hospital, suffering acute kidney failure which has been linked to tampons.

She had been using using tampons for about a year and a half and hadn't experienced any previous problems.

Grace's symptoms included vomiting, diarrhoea and a rash across her chest.

"I went to White Cross. We thought it may have been food poisoning because I had eaten a filled roll the previous day and then they took my heart rate and they weren't happy about it," she said.

Grace was rushed to Whangarei Hospital.

Kotex says it's the first two cases it's been made aware of since launching the brand.

"Toxic shock tends to look like a whole lot of other things - it can look like measles or food poisoning, so it took them a while to work out what was going on," Grace said.

Grace and her Mum don't blame tampon manufacturers Libra and haven't bothered to contact them, saying only a very small percentage of women suffer from the illness.

Grace says she was made aware of TSS at school and on the warning pamphlet included in tampon packaging.

Grace has been warned by her doctor never to use tampons again and is advising others not to either.

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