A British family’s Spanish holiday turned into a nightmare as a teenage girl has been left fighting for her life after her lungs filled up with blood.
Whilst enjoying a holiday with her parents in Alicante Charlotte Meek, from Larhall near Glasgow, became seriously unwell on January 6 and started to expel blood from her mouth and was violently sick.
Parents Wendy and Stephen quickly called an ambulance upon arriving at hospital Charlotte, 13, was placed in intensive care, where she remains.
Charlotte suffers from a rare genetic condition called SWAN, the condition is so rare that doctors are unable to provide a diagnosis.
Stephen told the Daily Record: “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 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.”
“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.”
Tragically, the family lost Charlotte’s 10-year-old brother Justin after a family trip to Florida in 2014.
Justin suffered from a rare genetic disorder called Prader-Willi Syndrome and whilst on holiday doctors discovered a blood clot in his stomach which required surgery.
However, they were sadly unable to remove it .Stephen said that seeing Charlotte in hospital felt like a “horrific mirror image” of the tragic incident.
The family have been told it could be weeks before they can return home.
“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”, said Stephen.
The family have now moved into an apartment close to the hospital, in order to pay for this Charlotte’s parents have launched a fundraising campaign which has raised over £1.6k.
After Justin’s devestating death the family set up SMILE Children’s charity to provide support to families of seriously ill or disabled children.
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