Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Airlift the last hope for tragic coma teen
Rachel, 19, in fight for life
A NORTHERN Ireland teenager has been airlifted to a Manchester hospital in a last-ditch attempt to save her life.
Rachel Kordula, 19, has been given the last rites twice since her mother found her in a coma on New Year’s Day.
The health and beauty student, from Limavady, Co Derry, has been diagnosed with pneumonia and sepsis.
Her mum Katrina Lynch, 43, said it has been a “very traumatic” time. She added: “I found her on the bed and she had blood coming out of her nose and mouth and she was blue.
“Her breathing was very shallow and there was a long time between breaths. She was struggling.
“I panicked and couldn’t perform CPR and had to get a neighbour in.
“Everything in her body just shut down and she went into multi-organ failure. We don’t know if there is any brain damage. The CT was clear but Rachel has been without oxygen.”
Doctors said Rachel’s only hope was specialist equipment in England after her condition deteriorated. It is only available at a number of facilities and Katrina had almost given up hope when Leicester medics turned them down.
But the family received a boost from an ECMO team at another unit, where they will use an artificial lung outside the body to try to keep Rachel alive.
Katrina added: “At 6 o’clock on Sunday night Manchester phoned and said they were on their way. We were warned there was a high risk she wouldn’t come off the operating table.
“They flew into Belfast, got an ambulance and were straight into theatre at
Altnagelvin shortly after midnight.”
Rachel could be hooked up to the ECMO machine in Manchester for up to five weeks – with a cut-off period at 10 weeks.
But Katrina hopes she pulls through, adding: “This is our last chance.”
To donate and help with costs search for Rachel Kordula on www.gofundme. com.
MANCHESTER YESTERDAY