Mother positive after surviving virus



Adi and Bhowana Naulakha with baby Anya.

Adi and Bhowana Naulakha with baby Anya. Photo: John Woudstra
Nick Miller
July 22, 2009

JUST a week ago Bhavna Naulakha was unconscious in the Austin Hospital's intensive care unit after swine flu had flooded her lungs with suffocating fluid.

Doctors privately gave her little chance of survival.

Now the Indian student is on the way to a full recovery — and reunited with her first child, Anya, born two days before she slipped into the coma.

Mrs Naulakha says she wants to speak out about how Victoria's health system has saved her life, to balance the negative impression her home country has of Melbourne.

Doctors are unsure why swine flu is striking pregnant women so hard. The latest data from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society shows 13 per cent of people put in intensive care by the virus were pregnant, or had given birth less than a month earlier.

Mrs Naulakha started experiencing flu symptoms a month ago, when 36 weeks pregnant with her daughter.

Soon her symptoms had worsened: she had difficulty breathing and doctors found her baby's heartbeat was falling. They induced the birth — but two days later Mrs Naulakha developed severe pneumonia.

"After that I don't remember anything," she said.

Husband Aditya remembers this as the start of "horrifying days". His wife was rushed to intensive care and he was told her chances were 50-50.

"We were planning for a baby for a long time, then it was looking like a tragedy," he said. "The baby was very cool and calm, more than me. But we had faith in God that nothing wrong would happen."

Professor Graeme Hart, deputy director of the Austin's intensive care unit, said traditional ventilation had failed to get enough oxygen into Mrs Naulakha's blood. Instead they used the ECMO treatment: extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation that artificially re-oxygenates the blood.

"She would have died without it," he said. Even with the intensive treatment, doctors estimated Mrs Naulakha had a 20 to 30 per cent chance of survival. She was in intensive care for 20 days before returning to consciousness late last week.

Mrs Naulakha said she was happy for her story to be told as a positive side of being an Indian student in Melbourne — she is studying hairdressing at TAFE. "People here are very generous of nature," she said.

Mr Naulakha said his wife might have died if she had been in an Indian, rather than a Victorian hospital.

"The health system and the facilities (here) are tremendous and world class — I think due to that she was saved," he said.

There are now 34 swine flu patients in Victorian hospitals.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/m...90721-ds2u.html 

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I do not think this thread belongs to flu prep as this is a medical treatment which is used with highly critical cases, it looks like not very many ECMO clinics are available in the world !!!!!!!!!

The following article is from today and from UK:

It is basically to say that ECMO specialised treatment units have only few beds in each country and since UK ECMO beds/units were full a Scottish patient was transferred to Sweden

A typical ECMO room looks like this



The new UK article from the BBC:

Swine flu woman treated in Sweden


The woman was on a ventilator after suffering an extreme reaction

A pregnant woman critically ill with swine flu has been transferred to Sweden for specialised treatment after suffering an extreme reaction.

The 26-year-old woman was admitted to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, with H1N1 last week.

But after complications, the hospital recommended a procedure in which her blood will be circulated outwith her body and oxygen added artificially.

A Leicester unit which carries this out is full so she has been sent to Sweden.

The procedure is known as extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and involves a machine taking over the function of the patient's heart and lungs.

'Highly specialised'

The UK has a national ECMO unit in Leicester, to which Scottish patients would normally be sent.

However, all five beds in this unit are currently in use.( so there are only 5 ECMO beds in the UK????)

A bed in a similar unit was found in Stockholm, where the woman has been flown to receive the treatment.

Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "The patient has now arrived at hospital in Stockholm.

"Doctors are pleased with how she has coped with the journey, which is obviously encouraging news.

"But the patient is critically ill, which is why she has had to be transferred for this highly specialised procedure."

She said the small number of beds in the UK reflected the fact that it was very rare for any patients to require the treatment.

But she added: "We're also part of pan-European arrangements, and it's by virtue of this that clinicians have been able to arrange this transfer."

Ms Sturgeon said she did not know if the patients currently being treated in the Leicester unit have swine flu.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8166309.stm 

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The Help Desk is located at the top of the front page of CE right beneath the Foyer.

We do our best to place threads where we think they should be in order to keep the place as orderly as possible. I tend to think of Flu Prep as the room where various treatments for various flus should be placed and why I moved it there. This is not a hard and fast rule, just my way of thinking.

There are only 2 moderators for all of CE and we dont always read all the threads so if you want our attention it's better to use the Help Desk.

Thanks. M  

__________________ 
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Living well is the best revenge. 

That photo of the hospital room is incredible -- thanks for posting it!

It's a strong visual reminder of the extraordinary effort involved in keeping many survivors alive. It also speaks to why mortality is so much higher in populations without access to health care.

Also -- MANY thanks to our amazing moderators!!


MomCares 

Thanks for moving the thread Mosaic

It was said today that there is a fear in UK that intensive care beds will not be enough for the increasing number of swine flu patients.

Here is more about the patient who was transferred to Sweden:

Family's vigil for pregnant mother rushed to Sweden with swine flu due to specialist bed shortage

By Sam Greenhill
Last updated at 11:02 PM on 24th July 2009



A pregnant mother with swine flu was battling for her life last night after being flown to Sweden for emergency treatment.

Sharon Pentleton developed adult respiratory distress syndrome, a rare complication of swine flu.

She was taken to the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm because a specialist five-bed NHS unit in Leicester was full.

[b]Patients included two other swine flu victims. Her chances of recovery are put at 50-50.


Vigil: Brian and Sharon Muirhead. He is at her bedside in Stockholm

Miss Pentleton, a care assistant for the elderly in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, is six months pregnant with her second child.

She and her partner Brian Muirhead have a two-year-old daughter, Kieva.

Last night Mr Muirhead, 30, was keeping a vigil at her bedside with her father James Pentleton.

Mr Muirhead: 'We are not thinking about anything at all except Sharon getting better. It is a very difficult time and I am just focused on her recovery.

‘They have been wonderful to us here and I know Sharon is getting the best care possible.

'We just want to concentrate on Sharon.

‘The picture we have issued of her is one of my favourites. She looks absolutely lovely in it. I would do anything to protect Sharon.'

Gravely ill: Expectant mother Sharon Pentleton is fighting for life



Last night she was described by the hospital as 'critical but stable' in one of only four beds in the specialist ECMO unit.

Another patient in the same unit is a 22-year-old Swedish man who like Ms Pentleton has swine flu complications.

ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) involves the patient's blood being circulated outside the body with the addition of oxygen.

The technique is used when a person's lungs are functioning very poorly even with ventilation and high levels of oxygen - and the patient's chances are rated as 50-50.

The ECMO unit is a modern purpose-built unit with security-controlled doors in a far corner of the children's wing of the hospital.

Ms Pentleton is monitored 24-hours a day by an array of equipment and a team of specialists.

She arrived on Thursday evening after Swedish doctors chartered a private jet to fly the two hours to Scotland to pick her up.

Crister Classon, a spokesman for the hospital, said: 'We are happy to help Britain or any other country if they run out of beds.

‘It is a normal procedure to help other countries when they need it.

'We have only four beds and we currently have two swine flu patients in them, so there there are presently only two spare beds.'

It is thought a second British patient may be transferred to the unit.

The hospital's Dr Palle Palmer explained that the ECMO machine - similar to a heart and lung machine - was used to 'buy time' for patients.

He said people could be kept on the machine for up to two months, but added that most patients did not need ECMO treatment for that long.

He said: 'Normally it takes about two weeks, that's the normal treatment. But it is possible to run it for longer.

Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm: Where Miss Pentleton is being treated

‘It's not really a treatment, it's more like buying time to allow the body to get better.'

Dr Palmer added: 'We don't use it if there are other ways of treating someone. Every time we get a patient they are extremely ill.'

The Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, where doctors had hoped to treat Miss Pentleton, has the first designated ECMO unit for adults in the UK.

But because it was full - with two of its five machines already being used by swine flu patients- medics turned to Stockholm.

ECMO treatment has only recently been accepted into mainstream NHS practice, being regarded as experimental in adults until the completion of a trial six months ago.

Seriously sick children have been successfully treated for some time.


Consultant cardio-thoracic surgeon Mr Richard Firmin director of the ECMO unit in Leicester, said an average of 100 patients a year are treated there and beds could be expanded to 10 if absolutely necessary.

Patients are attached to an ECMO machine while their lungs recover from a variety of conditions, including viral infections and trauma.

It involves circulating the patient's blood outside the body and adding oxygen to it artificially,

Mr Firmin said 'The circuit is basically an external lung. Anybody who ends up with ECMO is somebody who is at the very severest end of lung failure.'

Patients may need treatment for two to eight weeks, at a cost of £55,000 to £105,000 per patient.

Professor David Menon, an intensive care specialist at Cambridge University, said a small minority of swine flu victims who need intensive care have suffered a direct viral attack on their lungs, rather than a secondary infection.

The condition called pneumonitis involves destruction of lung tissue.

He said ECMO treatment had been used to help swine flu victims in other countries.

He said 'It is used for seriously ill patients whose chances of survival are around 50 per cent.'

ECMO is used for conditions other than lung failure, such as heart problems.

Doctors in specialist units like Papworth Heart Hospital, Cambridgeshire, are currently investigating how their ECMO facilities can be used to help swine flu patients.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...l#ixzz0MDmzfqRH 

Man with severe swine flu defies the odds
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)
ELISSA DOHERTY
November 15, 2009 12:00am
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/...90-2682,00.html


ROBERT Pridham was about to die: in the grips of swine flu, his lungs were so inflamed he couldn't breathe.

With not even a ventilator able to help, family members and his fiancee were given the devastating news they should say goodbye to the 30-year-old.

Doctors had seen few cases of swine flu this bad and believed he had just hours to live.

But in a South Australian first, doctors at the Royal Adelaide Hospital miraculously brought him back from the brink of death with a new machine likened to an "artificial lung".

The blood was drained out of his body, oxygenated in the machine, then pumped back via large drips in his neck and legs. The Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine had never before been used in SA, and was a last resort to arrest the pneumonia stemming from swine flu.

"I wouldn't be here otherwise," Mr Pridham, of Strathalbyn, said this week.

"I've been told I was very lucky to get through it."

In SA, 29 people have died after contracting swine flu this year, with 9107 confirmed cases.

The Strathalbyn Racecourse groundskeeper was unconscious through much of the two-month ordeal that struck without warning.

One day, he was healthy and fit, working, playing golf and dreaming of his upcoming wedding.

The next he was struck down with fever, which within a week sent him into intensive care, and a 3 1/2-week coma.

It started after a game of paintball on September 6, when he began experiencing the shakes and a burning 42C temperature.

His GP initially dismissed it as a normal flu, advising painkillers and rest.

But his condition worsened during the week, until he was struggling to breathe, wheezing and desperately dehydrated.

Rushed to the Mt Barker Hospital, he was quickly sent to the emergency department of the RAH where he was diagnosed with swine flu.

"I can't remember much, I was sent to ICU and put on a drip," he said.

"I was put in a coma and about three weeks later, re-awoken.

"They saved my life, I'm very glad they used the machine."

Filling in the gaps, his fiancee Lauren Hollitt, 24, said it had been their worst nightmare.

The family was told three times to say goodbye to him, because the pneumonia filling his lungs with infected fluid was so serious. "One night we all stayed at the hospital overnight and slept on the floor, we weren't sure what was going to happen," she recalled.

"But we never said goodbye - none of us wanted to give up hope.

"I just kept talking to him and saying 'I love you'." Weak but breathing on his own, Mr Pridham was finally discharged on Monday, and will return to work in the new year.

Ms Hollitt said it was like a "dream" to have him home after more than two months in hospital.

Associate Professor Rob Young, the RAH's director of intensive care, said the machine had been a last resort for Mr Pridham.

After swine flu began gripping the country, the ECMOs were fast-tracked to three Adelaide hospitals, at a cost of $210,000. Prof Young said Mr Pridham's case had been unusual because he had such a severe strain of swine flu with no underlying medical conditions.

"He had only hours to live, he would have died if that machine had failed," he said.

"The first time we used it was going to be a challenge, but it was our last, only option.

"The ICU can be a pretty horrible place, so to see someone so sick who has survived has been a real boost to the staff."

The grateful Pridham family has arranged a race day at Strathalbyn next month to raise money for the ICU.

The ECMO machines are saving swine flu victims around the world and others with life-threatening heart and lung problems. 

Makes you wonder how many people would be dying from SF without present day medical procedures. And why it can be so much worse in underdeveloped areas of the world. 

__________________ 
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Living well is the best revenge.