‘Near to death’: Fallon Devaney is intensive care after contracting swine flu
A pregnant mother of four was fighting for her life in hospital withswine flu today as her family told how doctors may have to soon choosebetween her and the unborn baby.
Fallon Devaney, who isfive months pregnant, was taken to hospital on Tuesday struggling forbreath and with flu like symptoms.
She was immediatelydiagnosed with swine flu and placed in intensive care where doctorsinduced a coma in a bid to save both mother and child’s life.
But the 25-year-old’s condition has worsened further after doctors discovered she had developed pneumonia.
Staff have now told her family they may be forced to take the decision they had been fearing.
MissDevaney’s mother, Linda Fearney, 46, said: ‘Last week I was taken asideby a doctor and told that either Fallon, the unborn baby, or both ofthem could die.
‘And now it’s getting to the stage we had feared and the baby is taking a lot of her strength.
‘The doctors have said they might need to do something about it to save Fallon.’If she can’t fight it because she’s carrying the baby then we have a very hard decision to make.
‘Theyaren’t concerned about the baby at this stage – it still has a strongheartbeat but it’s all about Fallon, she is the priority.’
She said the family have been told they will have to wait ‘one or two days’ for doctors to run tests to see how badly the pneumonia is affecting miss Devaney, from Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire, before a clinical decision can be taken on how to proceed.
But miss Fearney described her daughter as ‘near to death’ and said the situation was ‘touch and go’. She added: ‘Christmas has been totally cancelled…We don’t know if she’s going to survive’.
News of miss Devaney’s fight for life emerged as the Government’s chief medical officer warned that half of those most seriously affected by swine flu had no existing health concerns, while some swine flu patients have been unable to obtain the anti-viral drug used to treat the condition because of a shortage of supplies.
Miss Devaney had not been vaccinated against swine flu. Her relatives have since all had the vaccine so they can go and visit her at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre.
Pregnant women are thought to be more than four times more likely than others to develop serious complications if they contract swine flu.
A hospital spokesman said miss Devaney remained critical but stable last night. He could not comment on miss Fearney’s claims about the possible future direction of her daughter’s treatment.
Miss Devaney’s other children are called Jordan, 4, Lauren, 2, Aylissa, 3, and Demi, 5.
She is still in a relationship with the father of these children, but he does not want to be named. The couple are not married.
Miss Devaney’s case comes as five patients lie critically ill with swine flu at the University Hospital in Coventry, 45 miles from Nottingham. A hospital spokesman said the three men and two women all had existing health problems.
The Health Protection Agency has received reports of 17 deaths – six of those children – across the UK relating to influenza in the last three months. of those fatalities, 14 were linked to swine flu.
None of those who died had been vaccinated against the virus and at least eight were in higher risk groups or had underlying health concerns.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, wrote to GPs and NHS hospitals last week warning of a ‘sharp increase’ in the numbers of patients admitted to intensive care because swine flu caused their lungs to fail. of these, half were previously healthy.
The Department of Health confirmed it was ‘unusual’ to find so many previously healthy people among the worst affected by the virus and urged anyone concerned about worsening flu-like symptoms to contact their GP.
Meanwhile, NHS Kirklees which covers parts of West Yorkshire, said ‘difficulties with the national supply chain’ of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu had left some of its community pharmacies without stocks. A spokesman said the issue was expected to be resolved by today(mon),
A swine flu expert warned yesterday that young people are at greater risk from the virus than the over-60s, but are more reluctant to get vaccinated because of ‘utter nonsense’ spread on social networking sites that the jab could prove fatal.
Professor John Oxford, from Queen Mary, University of London, said pensioners have a tolerance to the swine flu strain having been exposed to it in the 1940s and 1950s, despite being more vulnerable to flu in general. He said there were fewer deaths across those age groups compared to younger people last year.