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Influenza patient transfer
23/07/2009
A Scottish patient suffering from influenza A (H1N1) who has suffered a rare complication is being transferred for highly specialised treatment in Sweden.
The 26-year-old woman was being treated at Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, after being admitted last week. However, due to an extreme reaction to the H1N1 virus, she has been on a ventilator in a critical condition.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran's specialist intensive care team have recommended the woman receives a highly-specialised procedure known as extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This involves circulating the patient's blood outwith the body and adding oxygen to it artificially.
The UK has a national ECMO unit in Leicester covering all four nations, to which Scottish patients would normally be sent.
However, all five beds in this unit are currently in use. The small number of beds reflect the exceptional rarity of this procedure.
A bed in a similar unit has, however, been found in Stockholm, Sweden, as a result of pan-European arrangements for sharing these scarce facilities.
Once the clinical decision had been taken to seek the transfer of the patient, arrangements were made and a specialist medical team was despatched from Stockholm.
The family of the woman has been fully involved in the decision to transfer her to Sweden and are supportive of this referral.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:
"This woman has suffered severe complications and requires urgent and highly specialised treatment.
"It is therefore absolutely right that she is transferred to Sweden for treatment which could save her life.
"The extreme rarity of the procedure she requires means that there are pan-European arrangements in place for sharing facilities when any one country's unit is full, as in the UK's case at present.
"This is therefore an excellent example of these arrangements working in practice for the benefit of patients.
"By the same token, we in the UK have taken patients from other European countries for this procedure in the past."