Teenage girl dies after contracting swine flu (From Daily Echo)

Madelynne Butcher, 18, dies after contracting H1N1 virus

12:30pm Saturday 8th August 2009 in News Exclusive By Simon Carr , Eastleigh Chief Reporter

A TALENTED teenager who dreamed of being a doctor and worked with disabled children has become the first person from Hampshire to die after contracting swine flu.

Top student Madelynne Butcher, 18, will not get the chance to open her Alevel results later this month.

It will be left to her mother Beverley to see if her daughter scored the grades she needed to get into university where she planned to study biology.

Madelynne, of Sholing, Southampton , showed no signs of illness when she headed off on holiday to Tenerife with a friend in June to celebrate finishing her exams.

However, when she returned she was sick and short of breath and her mother took her to see a doctor and then to Southampton General Hospital where she was later sedated.

After two weeks she was transferred to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester to be treated with specialist equipment.

Her mum and dad Alan went to visit her in Leicester on Thursday morning and were told when they arrived that their daughter had died.

The exact cause of her death has yet to be established but Madelynne had been diagnosed as having swine flu by Southampton doctors and had been prescribed the drug Tamiflu.

Last night her mum led the tributes.

She said: “She loved every minute of life. Madelynne was so adorable, everyone who met her thought so and that’s what all her friends have been saying.

“She was a very outgoing, easygoing and thoughtful, always thoughtful to her friends and family.”