Coma mother breathing unaided

A young mother fighting for her life in hospital after contracting swine flu is now breathing on her own.

Leanne Gunnell, 21, suffered brain damage when doctors put her in a coma to save her unborn child. Her daughter, Faith, was delivered by caesarean at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital weighing just 3lb.

While Faith has made good progress and will be sent home in a few weeks, her grandparents feared Miss Gunnell would never recover.

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Speaking of the news, Miss Gunnell's mother, Sharon, 43, said: "It's like winning the lottery.

"There's still a long road ahead, but the doctors say she is making very good progress, especially considering they were thinking of switching her support off."

Mrs Gunnell, a hotel housekeeper from Robinswood, Gloucester, said they still wanted to know why her daughter was never offered a swine flu jab despite being pregnant.

"According to the midwife Leanne wasn't offered the jab because it didn't come out until December.

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"She was rushed into hospital in November and my point is, what's the point in that if swine flu is around in November? It's just ridiculous," she said.

Miss Gunnell, a hotel receptionist, had been complaining of being ill for several days with a cold at the end November.

Six-and-a-half-months pregnant, she went to her doctors' surgery where she was told she had an infection and was given antibiotics. She was not tested for swine flu.

Four days later when Miss Gunnell was still unwell, her parents took her to the out-of-hours GP service and a doctor repeated the diagnosis. But the next day she was rushed to hospital by ambulance coughing up blood amid fears she had pneumonia.

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