HSE steps in to fly home critically ill Dublin woman

THE family of a critically- ill woman fighting for her life in a Vietnamese hospital were told last night that the HSE had agreed to fly her home by air ambulance.

Dubliner Karen Hamill, 27, contracted encephalitis last month when she stopped off in Vietnam on her way home from a backpacking holiday in New Zealand.

The condition led to her suffering a stroke and, earlier this month, her parents Tommy and Marie flew out to their daughter’s bedside, where she has round-the-clock care. She was kept in an isolation unit as fears for her life grew by the day.