Dunedin flu victim was 19 days in coma

When swine flu patient Terri Gordon-Davis (39) slipped into unconsciousness and was put on a ventilator to keep her alive, her husband was told she had a 25 per cent chance of surviving.

Five weeks later and still on a ventilator, Mrs Gordon-Davis is looking forward to being well enough to breathe and eat unaided.

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"I've been slowly recovering," Mrs Gordon-Davis, who only began speaking again this week, said.

"The feeding tube is uncomfortable. I hope to get that out in the next day or so.

"I'm hoping to be off the ventilator in the next week or so."

A workmate's child had a suspected case of swine flu, but Mrs Gordon-Davis had not knowingly come into contact with that child or anyone else with swine flu when she began to feel unwell early in August.

A couple of days later her general practitioner sent her to the hospital emergency department, where she was rehydrated and sent home.

By the end of that week, on August 7, Mrs Gordon-Davis returned to hospital in an ambulance.

"On August 10 I went to lala-land. Nineteen days later I woke up in intensive care."

The severity of the swine flu had been a "big shock" for her family.

"It's been pretty awful for my husband. At one point he was told I had a 25 per cent chance of surviving."