Tamiflu nearly killed my daughter, says TV presenter

Published on Tuesday 11 August 2009 21:59

ANDREW Castle's daughter Georgina was given Tamiflu after an outbreak of swine flu among five pupils at her private school in south London in May.

The tennis player turned breakfast TV presenter said the 16-year-old was not diagnosed with the virus before she was given the drug – and suffered an asthma attack the next day.

Castle said: "She had asthma, she was showing flu-like symptoms, she took Tamiflu and almost died.

"We saw a respiratory collapse through it and it almost cost my elder child her life. Nobody checked she had swine flu beforehand."

Castle said that when his wife collected the drug, she had explained that Georgina was an asthmatic and that she had flu-like symptoms.

The girl was taken to hospital where she was treated in intensive care. She was discharged three days later and made a full recovery, but tested negative for swine flu.

A spokeswoman for GMTV said Castle had been waiting for the results of a study into the side-effects of Tamiflu before publicising the incident.

He also told Health Secretary Andy Burnham about it before going on air.