A WOMAN who was plunged into a coma after being struck down with swine flu has urged people not to forget about the illness.

NHS Oxfordshire is still routinely offering a swine flu jab to people in at-risk groups, including pregnant women and young children.

It is a message Colleen Wright, from Blackbird Leys, will not forget in a hurry after the virus left her hours away from death.

Miss Wright had just given birth to her baby daughter, Hunnie, in October, when she started to feel ill.

Her mother, Susan, called out-of-hours doctors after Miss Wright’s temperature went up to 39C (102F) and she struggled to breathe.

She was taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital and immediately transferred to intensive care, where she fell into a coma as doctors battled in vain against the illness.

The 24-year-old said: “The last thing I remember saying is ‘Get me well for Hunnie’.

“Doctors have since told me that at one point I was one of the most ill people in the country. They expected me to die within hours.”

Then, in a last-ditch attempt to save her, Miss Wright was transferred to University Hospital, Leicester, so she could be hooked up to a special machine to flush the virus out of her system.

She was one of only a handful of people to undergo the treatment because she was so critically ill and lost her hair and fingernails.

Miss Wright said: “When you are so ill, the last thing your body tries to save is the hair and fingernails.

“It is doing everything it can to keep you alive. I was in a coma for five and half weeks but it felt like about six days.

“Going to Leicester was my last chance of survival.”

Miss Wright said she had experienced strange dreams and visions, but the worst thing about the illness was missing out on the important first days of her child’s life.

Miss Wright said: “It was difficult to bond at first because I was in a coma for the first few weeks of her life. Hunnie would go to her dad, no problem, but with me it was different.

“Even after I was brought around from the coma they had to keep me sedated so it was a long time before I had a clear head.

“But thankfully, Hunnie and I are brilliant now. She’s a real mummy’s girl.”

In February, NHS Oxfordshire said swine flu had cost more than £275,000 since the pandemic began in May, with almost 24,000 doses of Tamiflu issued and 45,000 people immunised.

Miss Wright, who has already made an appointment to get six-month-old Hunnie vaccinated, added: “I would say to anyone who’s worried about the effects of the vaccination, please, please just go and get the jab.

“The illness can be so much worse, and it’s really not worth risking it.”

  • NHS Oxfordshire is still offering the swine flu jab to at-risk groups.

These include those with long-term illnesses, pregnant women, close contacts of people who have had the illness, and children aged six months to five years old.

There are no antiviral collection points open around the county; people who suspect they are ill should contact their GP. The trust could not say how many people in the county currently have swine flu, if any.

For more information, go to oxfordshirepct.nhs.uk