Mother pleads that all children 'at risk' be given swine flu jab

The mother of a three-year-old swine flu victim has called for the vaccination of all children, not just those considered by doctors to be "at risk".

Gemma Ameen and her husband, Zana, switched off their daughter Lana's life support two days after she apparently caught a cold on Christmas Eve.

The couple, a nurse and a doctor, initially took Lana to a hospital in Stockport, Cheshire, where she was diagnosed with an infection and sent home.

Later the same day, she was taken back to Stepping Hill Hospital after suffering multiple fits. Mr and Mrs Ameen claimed she then had to be revived three times over a three-hour period as they said a junior doctor refused to call a specialist consultant.

Lana was eventually transferred to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool where she died on Boxing Day.

Mrs Ameen has issued a photograph of her daughter in intensive care in a bid to reverse NHS policy on who is eligible for the seasonal flu vaccine that combats the H1N1 virus.

The UK Department of Health insisted independent expert advice was "absolutely clear" that children who did not have risk factors should not be vaccinated.

The advice had been reviewed recently and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation had not changed its recommendation, it said.

But Mrs Ameen, 28, said: "It's heartless really. It definitely needs looking at again with another review.

"Rather than just taking facts and figures, they need to start thinking about people's lives.

"It's not about whether they thought Lana should have been eligible. Obviously she was, because she died from it. I think all children should be vaccinated and anyone else who is prepared to pay for it."

Mrs Ameen, who is 12 weeks pregnant, said she had tried to get a vaccine for her daughter from their family GP but was unable to receive the jab because Lana had no underlying health problems at the time.

Both she and her husband, who is being comforted by relatives in his homeland of Kurdistan, have received the seasonal flu protection.

The family are from Birmingham and Mrs Ameen had been visiting her mother, Janet, at her home in Stockport at the time her daughter fell ill.

The nurse has now launched a website campaign, Lana's Cause, with the objective "to make the swine flu vaccine available to everybody".

On it, she has written: "Lana was on a day-to-day basis a very healthy, bright and bubbly little girl who had no underlying health issues.

"She was taken to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool.The consultant informed us that Lana was brain dead and there was nothing that could be done and we would eventually have to switch off her life support machine. We switched the machine off on 26th December 2010 at 16.25pm.

"To add to all of our distress, we were then told there was no cause of death. Alder Hey then confirmed that swine flu was the cause of death."

Mrs Ameen said government policy was "clearly excluding a large amount of the public from being protected from this virus" and that "prevention is better than cure".

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "The advice from independent experts has been absolutely clear. The flu vaccine should be used to protect children from six months upwards who are in at-risk groups, and experts do not recommend the vaccination of children who do not have risk factors."

Bosses at Stepping Hill have launched an investigation into Lana's treatment. A spokesman said: "To date, that review has identified that Lana received appropriate treatment and care in a timely fashion."