31st October 2026 – (Hong Kong) A family holiday turned into a medical crisis when Baby Matthew, from Nottinghamshire, suffered influenza A and three cardiac arrests while visiting relatives, leaving him ventilated and unable to travel home except by private air ambulance. His mother, Sophia Lee, said what was meant to be a joyful visit rapidly became a nightmare, with her son’s brain deprived of oxygen for an estimated 47 minutes during the emergency. Matthew marked his first birthday in hospital in Hong Kong as efforts to arrange repatriation repeatedly stalled.
With commercial airlines declining to carry a ventilated infant due to safety concerns, the family turned to Lia’s Wings, the United Kingdom charity that arranges hospital‑to‑hospital air transfers for children. Charlotte Young, chief operating officer at Lia’s Wings, said the charity is urgently appealing for a donated private long‑haul aircraft to fly Matthew to Britain for NHS tests and treatment, noting that the cost of a dedicated air ambulance could reach up to £200,000, which is beyond the family and the small charity. She added that both Hong Kong and English clinicians agree on a plan to move the child, and that a specialist team comprising two consultants and a paediatric nurse, along with the necessary equipment to adapt a private jet, is on standby if an aircraft becomes available.
Young said there is no viable alternative to a private ambulance flight and warned that without repatriation Matthew faces gradual medical decline away from his home support network. The family held travel insurance but later discovered that repatriation was excluded in the policy’s small print. Lia’s Wings said requests for urgent transfers of children from abroad have risen sharply over the past year; in the first six months of this year the charity assisted more children than in the whole of last year, supporting 68 children in the past 12 months and more than 300 since its launch in 2010.
Local health authorities previously highlighted the risks from seasonal influenza. On 15th July 2026, Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection reported a severe paediatric influenza A case involving a nine‑month‑old boy who suffered cardiac arrest and required paediatric intensive care, and urged the public to maintain strict hygiene and seek immediate medical attention for warning symptoms. That notice cautioned that influenza activity had been rising since late June, with expectations of further increases in the following weeks. The advisory reiterated that children, the elderly and people with underlying conditions should be especially vigilant and consider mask‑wearing in crowded settings.
