UK: Scottish girl needs ECMO, too weak in Spain to return

[Roehl_JC]

SCOTS holidaymaker was in a coma last night after being struck down with swine flu in Ibiza.

And the distraught family of Lindy Paterson, 26, from Keltybridge, Fife, warned she will die unless she's flown home NOW.

Sister Louise, 23, said: "It's Lindy's last chance, we need her back here to save her life."

Lindy is fighting for survival on the sunshine island of Ibiza after falling ill during a dream trip with four pals.

The deadly bug has left the "superfit" law graduate with a hole in one of her lungs and suspected kidney failure.

Her condition is so serious, Spanish doctors were forced to put her into a medically-induced coma.

But staff at the private clinic where she is being treated say they still don't know when she will be fit enough to be flown home for vital ECMO treatment.

And devastated Louisa said: "She is not going to get better in that hospital.

"It's getting desperate now we need Lindy back."

Lindy started suffering cold-like symptoms a few days after arriving in San Antonio on September 2.

Within a week, her health deteriorated rapidly.

Her stunned friends and family were then told she'd tested positive for swine flu - with doctors later warning she may lose her fight for life.

Lindy's mum Celine, 49, is now at her daughter's hospital bedside.

She said: "We can't get her home. It's a nightmare. She's a mass of tubes and monitors.

"We believed Lindy was to be flown back to hospital in Leicester to be treated on the ECMO machine that puts oxygen back into her blood.

She's too ill to fly and we can't bring her home until her lungs are back in working order.

"Then they said she was going to be moved to the main hospital in Majorca. I don't see the point of moving her there."

Louisa added: "They said she'll maybe be there for one month to two months but her kidneys are failing.

"They said she'll have permanent damage.

"My parents are over there on their own trying to cope alone, not understanding the language.

"The doctors keep saying she is getting a tiny bit better or that there's no change. That's not enough - it's getting desperate.

"When my mum called me on Friday she was in tears. I've never heard my mum crying like that."


http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/hom...my-sister-home-or-shell-die-of-swine-flu.html

 

[TrueScotsman]

Re: UK: Scottish girl needs ECMO, too weak in Spain to return

http://news.scotsman.com/health/Scottish-holidaymaker-26-fights-for.5682628.jp

A YOUNG Scottish woman is on a life-support machine in Ibiza after contracting swine flu.
Lindy Paterson, 26, from Fife, fell ill after arriving in Spain with three friends for a summer holiday. She was in intensive care last night and in a "serious but stable" condition.

Her parents, Celine and William Paterson, from Kelty Bridge in Fife, flew out on 16 September and have been keeping a bedside vigil.

Miss Paterson, who arrived in Ibiza two weeks ago, became ill just days into her holiday.

She spent five days in bed but concerned friends called an ambulance after her condition deteriorated. Her three friends are back in Scotland and Mrs Paterson said they have not developed any flu symptoms.

Last night Mrs Paterson said her daughter's illness was her "worst nightmare".

"Lindy rang me just days into her holiday and said she didn't feel very well," she said.

"She was coughing and said she had gone to the chemist to get throat spray. She was supposed to ring me on the Saturday but she never did ? then the hospital rang on Sunday and told us how ill she was."

Mrs Paterson and her husband, a retired miner, flew to Spain three days later.

"When I saw her I burst into tears," she said. "Her face was so pale and drawn and she was so thin. She had tubes everywhere and a machine which was breathing for her.

"I just remembered hugging her before she went, reminding her to take care, not to drink too much and to eat properly."

She said her daughter, who works for Lloyds Banking Group in Edinburgh, had been planning a "girlie" holiday for months. "It was her first proper holiday with a bunch of friends and they were so excited about going," she added.

Miss Paterson is being treated at a private Spanish hospital, Grupo Policlinica, and her mother said that when they arrived doctors told them how ill she was.

"They took us into a room and said that she had tested positive for swine flu but that she also had pneumonia and that she was on a life support machine. It is a mother's worst nightmare ? I can't eat or sleep for worry."

She said her other daughter, Louise, 23, who is training to be a nurse, was very upset.

She also said Miss Paterson had just bought her own flat in Cowdenbeath. "Lindy is such a fun, wonderful girl. She loves music, exercise and cycling so she is really fit and strong," she added. "We are hoping this is going to help her fight this."

Mrs Paterson said she was told several days ago doctors were planning to fly her daughter to the UK so she could receive specialist treatment ? extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), used to treat serious swine flu cases at a hospital in Leicester. However, they told her on Saturday she was too sick to fly.

"That was a real blow, we just want to get our girl home," she added. "We can't touch or speak to her which is so very hard ? I just want to give my wee girl a hug. We are hoping now that as her condition has stabilised she is over the worst."

A spokeswoman from the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm the hospitalisation of a British woman in Ibiza for pneumonia and that we are providing consulate assistance."