Birthday Celebrations End Tragically

A young woman from Belfast died last week in Spain after contracting swine flu and also developing pneumonia.

Corinna Ritchie, a hairdresser, went to Ibiza to celebrate her 21st birthday and became ill while on holiday on the island.

There, she suffered liver failure and had to be flown by air ambulance from Ibiza to a Barcelona hospital for a liver transplant.

But while she was recovering, she contracted pneumonia and swine flu and finally died.

Her devastated parents had flow out to Spain to keep a bedside vigil when she became ill, more than two weeks ago, but she finally died on 14th September. They have already returned to Belfast and their daughter's body will be flown home later this week.

Ms Ritchie, who worked as a hairdresser in Belfast, was the second flu victim last week in Northern Ireland.

The day before, a baby girl died in the Royal Victoria Children's hospital after contracting swine flu.

A postmortem examination confirmed the diagnosis but also found that the child had an underlying heart condition, which was the cause of death.

See: 'Sadness' As Swine Flu Death Revealed

See: Baby Death, Not Swine Flu

(CL/BMcC)