B.C. teen spends Christmas in hospital after nearly dying from avian flu [Video]

A young teen is currently in BC Children’s Hospital, where she spent Christmas after narrowly surviving North America’s first critical case of H5N1 bird flu.

The 13-year-old girl first went to hospital in early November with a fever and pink eye in both eyes, before deteriorating and being put on multiple anti-viral drugs and life-support systems. Many of the details were made public in a prominent medical journal on Tuesday, and are now being closely scrutinized by medical professionals across the continent. 

One of the doctors who treated her said while the girl had mild asthma and is overweight, she was otherwise healthy before her infection, and she’s doing well now that she’s been out of the intensive care unit for several weeks.

“She’s no longer needing oxygen support or other respiratory support, not needing renal kidney support, so she has recovered from the critical illness, but anytime somebody is that sick in the …