The patient, from Lanarkshire, will undergo a procedure at a specialist unit in Leicester, where his blood will be circulated in an artificial lung to allow oxygen to be added.

It is the same treatment, called extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo), that was given to expectant mother Sharon Pentleton, from North Ayrshire. She was sent to Sweden for the procedure in July and has since made a good recovery.

The Scottish Government revealed the latest development as part of a weekly update which showed about 1000 Scots are now catching the virus each day.

A spokeswoman said that a second wave of the pandemic had not yet been declared, adding that infection rates gathered over the next two to three weeks would be crucial in determining the behaviour of the virus.

In England, 9000 new cases of swine flu have been reported in the past week, with England’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson claiming there were signs that a second wave of swine flu was on its way.

A total of 66 schools have been affected by a swine flu outbreak south of the border, compared with an estimated three in Scotland.

Meanwhile, Dr Harry Burns, chief medical officer for Scotland, told a gathering of clinicians in Glasgow about the time-consuming procedures that must be followed before the vaccine can be administered to the 1.4 million Scots most at risk from the infection.

Those to get first access to the drug include frontline health and social care workers, those over 65, pregnant women and those with existing health conditions such as cancer and HIV/Aids.

The vaccine, which is heavily modelled on the avian flu vaccine and has experienced some delays in manufacture, has yet to be licensed by European Medicines Agency (EMEA). Once this has happened, the drug has then to be rubberstamped by the European Commission, a process that could take up to two weeks.

The Scottish Government is working to guidance from manufacturers that the EMEA will license the drug in October, but it is not yet clear when the first batches will arrive in Scotland.

An agreement has been reached between the Government and GPs to administer the vaccine for priority cases, with a payment of £5.25 offered for each patient. This will cover the cost of extra staff if required.

Patients will get two doses of the drug, but early clinical trials would suggest that one dose provided a good level of anti-bodies to the virus.

Dr Burns told clinicians at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow: “The key thing as far as I am concerned is that there is good safety evidence about the vaccine. I get some really weird emails from people who think that it (the vaccine) is a plot to control us and turn us all into zombies. We have no reason to believe that this vaccine will be any less safe than the normal flu vaccine.”

On reflection about the way the swine flu outbreak had been handled in Scotland, Dr Burns told the RCPSG: “Very early on we didn’t know what we were dealing with. It took a long time to get a grip on how serious this was going to be.

He added that he was “impressed” with the way the NHS handled the pandemic.