A teenage girl from South Lanarkshire has been left fighting for her life in Spain, after her lungs filled with blood on a family holiday.
Charlotte Meek, 13, from Larkhall, jetted off to Alicante with mum Wendy, 52, and dad Stephen, 54, for the famous Kings’ Day parade on January 5. However, tragedy struck on January 6, after Charlotte became unwell and was rushed to hospital, where she remains in ICU on a ventilator.
The family have been warned it could be weeks before they were even able to begin discussing transferring her home.
Charlotte has a genetic condition called SWAN (Syndrome with no name), which is so rare medics are unable to provide a diagnosis and causes underlying health issues.
Tragically, the family lost Charlotte’s big brother Justin in similar circumstances while on a family holiday to Florida in 2014. Her dad said it was like a “mirror image” of their current situation.
The brave youngster in Alicante before taking ill.
Speaking to the record, Stephen recalled the terrifying incident. He said: “We had three days enjoying a nice wee break, then in the early hours of Monday morning Charlotte began to have coughing fits quite consistently then began coughing up blood which is never good.
“By 5.30am she was being violently sick with a lot of blood. Even though Charlotte has underlying health conditions she had been well recently so we were worried.
“We phoned an ambulance on Monday morning and she was rushed to a hospital in Alicante. Her mum travelled with her in the ambulance and I followed in the car.”
Charlotte is in the ICU of a Spanish hospital.
“By the time I got there she was already getting put on a ventilator and her oxygen levels were worryingly low.
“This was around 7am and by 11am we were told she was critically ill and she was transferred to another hospital in Alicante where she has been for the last week.
“She has had a slight improvement but she is still very poorly, relying on the ventilator to breathe and fully sedated.”
The family have now moved to an apartment across the road from the hospital so they can stay by Charlotte’s bedside.
Stephen continued: “They have told us to prepare to spend weeks here while Charlotte recovers, they still don’t know what the cause of the bleeding is.
“If she continues to recover there will be discussions further down the line about flying her home but just now we are focusing on each day.”
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