Pregnant Scot ill with swine flu flown to Sweden

Published on Friday 24 July 2009 00:28

A PREGNANT Scot fighting for her life after contracting swine flu has been rushed to Sweden for treatment for a rare complication.

The woman, 26, is said to have had an extreme reaction to the H1N1 virus after being admitted to Crosshouse Hospital, in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, last week.

Experts at NHS Ayrshire and Arran recommended the woman receive a highly specialised procedure, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which involves adding oxygen to the blood outside the body.

There are no beds available at the only specialist ECMO unit in the UK, in Leicester, so doctors recommended she be flown to a unit in Sweden.

The woman is thought to be at least six months pregnant and is said to be have been in contact with other pregnant woman in the hospital.

She has been on a ventilator since last week and is described as being in a "critical" condition.

Dr Robert Masterton, executive medical director of NHS Ayrshire and Arran said: "Once an ECMO bed was identified in Sweden, our intensive care specialists worked closely with our Swedish colleagues to make sure the patient was stable before being transferred.

"The family have been fully involved in this decision and support this referral. They have asked for privacy while they concentrate on the patient's treatment and recovery."

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:

"The extreme rarity of the procedure she requires means that there are pan-European arrangements in place for sharing facilities when any one country's unit is full, as in the UK's case at present.

"We in the UK have taken patients from other European countries for this procedure in the past."

The UK government was moved to reassure pregnant women over swine flu last week when it emerged the woman was in a critical condition.

With an estimated 60,000 pregnant women in Scotland and 650,000 south of the Border, officials at the Department of Health said the H1N1 virus would not pose a serious risk to anybody other than those with underlying health problems.