'Fighting 17 years for Amy... Now she is paying the ultimate price'

Dave Mahon says wife Audrey needs a 'miracle'|57-year-old in coma and might not wake up | 'She's given her life trying to find daughter

- PAUL HEALY

THE mother of missing Irish teenager Amy Fitzpatrick is fighting for her life in hospital with her husband saying she needs "a miracle".

We have learned that Audrey Mahon, 57, whose teenage daughter Amy vanished in Spain in 2008, and whose son Dean was killed by her now husband Dave Mahon, is in a critical condition in hospital with liver failure.

Audrey is unconscious in hospital, according to her husband, who today exclusively tells this paper of his hopes that his "fighter" wife will ultimately pull through.

"I don't want to be the one doing a story about my wife but look she is in the public eye.

If she pulls through this it will be a miracle. I hope she does.

"Look, she's after fighting for the last 17 years for Amy and now she's paying the ultimate ultimate price. She's given her life," he said.

Dave, who has been by Audrey's hospital bedside, told us that toxins from her liver have gone into her brain and doctors have told him she may not ever wake up again.

"They said she could wake up in five minutes or in a week's time or that she may not wake up at all. If she wakes up then we have to assess to see if there's any brain damage, they said, and if she wakes up and there's no damage then we have to address the problem of liver failure," Mahon said.

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