Tamiflu Not Being Given In Time Cited As Possible Cause Of Death

the family is extremely upset and a little bit angry

The importance of taking the Tamiflu influenza medication as soon as possible after getting the swine flu virus has been highlighted by a case in which a teenager was not given the influenza drug until it was too late. An inquest held at Leicester Town Hall was told that it was only after the eighteen year old Madelynne Butcher had been in hospital for 36 hours that she was finally given the Tamiflu drug.

Originally the doctors had suspected that she was suffering from a bacterial pneumonia infection and so she was given antibiotics and it was only when she was tested for the H1N1 swine flu virus that she was finally given Tamiflu, unfortunately too late. 

Obviously the family is extremely upset and a little bit angry that she was not given the Tamiflu earlier because they feel it could have saved her. Her mother Beverly said that friends of her daughter had been given Tamiflu by doctors and yet Madelynne had not been given it despite being in hospital with a severe case of swine flu.

Madelynne whose body just could not cope with the damaging effects of the swine flu finally died from a heart attack weeks after being admitted in the hospital. The swine flu virus has been noted for having taken many young adult victims which is unusual because those most at risk from normal flu viruses tend to be very young children and the elderly.

Dr Rebecca Cusak who works at the Southampton General Hospital explained that prescriptions for Tamiflu were only given in the hospital after they had been approved by a respiratory consultant which appears to have been part of the explanation of why it took so long for Madelynne to get it.  She explained that this procedure was followed to ensure that there would be no shortages of Tamiflu in hospitals.