Woman, 43, dies after three-month swine flu battle

Photo / Greg Bowker.

A 43-year-old South Canterbury woman has died after being ravaged by swine flu for three months.

She was the third worst case of swine flu in the world, because of the damage the disease had caused her otherwise healthy body, an Auckland doctor who had been treating her said.

She had also made medical and scientific history by surviving so long, he told the Timaru Herald.

The Waimate mother-of-four had no other health conditions when she was admitted to hospital on August 8 with flu-like symptoms.

In her 14 weeks in hospital, she was transferred from Timaru to Christchurch to Auckland as doctors struggled to save her.

In the intensive care unit there, one lung started to fail and she was left with only half of the second lung functioning.

The woman started to respond to medication which helped her blood circulation and was cleared of swine flu but it had "eaten away at her organs", the source said.

The family thought they were "on the home straight" but her condition deteriorated and she died at 10pm on Wednesday night.

New Zealand's official death toll from swine flu is now 20.

- NZPA