A swine flu victim has told how specialist doctors in Leicester brought her back from the brink of death.

Without their dedication and expertise, Georgena Fry would almost certainly have died.

At one point, her family was warned she might not survive the journey to the city's Glenfield Hospital.

The 29-year-old is one of 62 confirmed swine flu patients, including one woman flown in from Sweden, who have been treated on the hospital's Ecmo – extra corporeal membrane – unit.

She spent five weeks in a coma and has to had to learn to walk again.

Georgena, of Kettering, fell ill last September. At first, she thought it was a chest infection but antibiotics made no difference and her temperature shot dangerously high.

She was admitted on October 3 to Kettering General Hospital, where doctors immediately suspected swine flu, although initial tests were negative.

Her condition worsened and, as she gasped for oxygen, doctors decided she would have to be placed into an induced coma.

Initially, the Ecmo unit was full but a bed finally became available. Despite that, on October 12, doctors warned her parents that she was so ill it was touch and go.

The specialist Ecmo treatment oxygenates blood outside the body and gives the lungs a chance to recover.

She spent 10 days – eight on the Ecmo unit – at Glenfield, where she also had to have dialysis because her kidneys failed, before being transferred back to Kettering.

Georgena left hospital on December 2, nearly nine weeks after becoming ill.

Because of the time she spent ill, her muscles began to waste and her lungs are still weak. She has had to learn to walk again and still gets very tired.

Georgena said: "It makes me so angry when people say a lot of fuss was made about swine flu. It nearly took my life and I have been told it could be another year before I have fully recovered. I owe my life to the doctors at Glenfield Hospital."

Another swine flu patient has described how the city unit saved her.

Victoria Fleming, 40, suffered multiple organ failure and was also put into a coma before being flown from Scotland to Leicester.

The mum-of-one from Lanarkshire said: "I am lucky to be alive. I was as ill as I could possibly be without dying. The treatment in Leicester made all the difference."

The Ecmo unit is the biggest of its kind in the world, doubling to 10 beds last October because of swine flu.