Pregnant Woman With Swine Flu Airlifted to Sweden

A pregnant woman critically ill with swine flu is getting the "best possible treatment" after being flown to Sweden for specialist treatment, the Scottish health secretary said today.

The 26-year-old patient was transferred to the hospital in Stockholm yesterday after suffering a rare and severe reaction to the H1N1 virus.

The health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio program: "She's now getting treatment that gives her the best possible chance of survival.

"She's now in hospital in Sweden. Doctors were pleased with how she coped with the journey. So she's now in very good hands, getting the best possible treatment and I'm sure we all wish her well and hope she makes a full recovery."

The woman had been admitted last week to Crosshouse hospital in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, where she was put on a ventilator.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran's specialist intensive care team recommended she receive a highly specialized procedure known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo).

This involves circulating the patient's blood outside the body and adding oxygen to it artificially – a relatively new technique that is used when a person's lungs are functioning very poorly even with ventilation and high levels of oxygen.

The UK has a national Ecmo unit in Leicester but all five beds are in use. A bed was, however, found in a similar unit in Stockholm, and the woman was transferred under pan-European arrangements for sharing such scarce facilities.

Sturgeon said the treatment "might, and hopefully will, save her life".

She added: "It's a highly specialized procedure and that's why, given a bed was found for her in Sweden, the decision was taken by her clinical team to recommend transfer there."

Before the woman was transferred, a medical team from Sweden came to Scotland to assess her.

Dr Robert Masterton, the 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."

He added: "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."

However, Sturgeon stressed this particular case was unusual.

She said: "It remains the case that for the overwhelming majority of people who get this virus the symptoms are very mild and they will make a full recovery within a matter of days without any complications whatsoever. It's that fact that should continue to give the public a lot of reassurance."