Parents of severely disabled girl wait for judge’s ruling on life support dispute
A couple who want to move their severely disabled five-year-old daughter to an Italian hospital are waiting for a judge’s ruling after becoming embroiled in a life-support dispute with doctors in Britain.
Specialists treating Tafida Raqeeb at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel say she has permanent brain damage and no chance of recovery.
Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, say further treatment is futile and want Mr Justice MacDonald to rule that stopping life-support treatment is in her best interests.
Tafida’s parents, who live in Newham, east London, want to move her to Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa, Italy, and have organised funding.
Her mother, solicitor Shelina Begum, and father, construction consultant Mohammed Raqeeb, say doctors there will keep providing life-support treatment until Tafida is diagnosed as brain dead.
They say Tafida, who has a British-Bangladeshi background, comes from a Muslim family and Islamic law only allows God to end life.
Trust bosses asked Mr Justice MacDonald to decide what moves are in the youngster’s best interests.
The judge analysed evidence at a recent trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London and is due to deliver a ruling on Thursday.
Mr Justice MacDonald was told how Tafida woke her parents in the early hours in February complaining of a headache.
She collapsed shortly afterwards and doctors discovered that blood vessels in her brain had ruptured.
Specialists say Tafida could live for years with life-support treatment.
But they say there is a “high chance” she will develop epilepsy which could not be treated.
They say she is likely to develop a disorder of the nervous system, spasticity, and be unable to control her movement.
Tafida would suffer ‘physical degradation’ if treatment continued, doctors say
A severely disabled five-year-old girl would suffer “physical degradation” if medics kept providing life-support treatment, a lawyer representing hospital bosses told a judge.
Specialists treating Tafida Raqeeb at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel say she has permanent brain damage and no chance of recovery.
Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, say further treatment is futile and want Mr Justice MacDonald to rule that stopping life-support treatment is in her best interests.
Tafida’s parents, who live in Newham, east London, want to move her to Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa, Italy, and have organised funding.
Her mother Shelina Begum and father Mohammed Raqeeb say doctors there will keep providing life-support treatment until Tafida is diagnosed as brain dead.
They say Tafida, who has a British-Bangladeshi background, comes from a Muslim family and Islamic law only allows God to end life.
Trust bosses have asked Mr Justice MacDonald, who analysed evidence at a High Court trial in London and heard that Tafida was in a minimally conscious state, to decide what moves are in the youngster’s best interests.
Barrister Katie Gollop QC, who leads the trust’s legal team, told Mr Justice MacDonald that the best interests question was “dominated by health issues”.
She said one specialist thought Tafida was in a condition “consistent with a vegetative state”.
Miss Gollop said the youngster might have a “very small amount of consciousness”.
Experts thought she felt no pain, had no awareness and had no prospect of recovery.
She said more treatment would mean “invasive operations” and “physical degradation”.
“Things will be done to her, not for her benefit,” said Miss Gollop.
“It is not in her best interests to continue to endure that existence.”
Lawyers fought the case in Tafida’s name and were given instructions by a relative.
They said the youngster had been denied her right to elect to receive medical care in another European state and should be allowed to go on living.
“One needs to put oneself, so far as one can, in the position of the patient and ask what the patient would have wanted,” barrister Vikram Sachdeva QC, who leads Tafida’s legal team, told Mr Justice MacDonald.
“It is a very weighty factor.”
He added: “There is very cogent convincing evidence of what Tafida’s wishes and feelings and beliefs and values are.”
Doctors did not think that Tafida was in pain – and the youngster’s parents agreed, he said.
“There is really very little on the downside,” said Mr Sachdeva
“If Tafida does not feel pain, then the downside is very, very limited.”
He said the “upside” was the “sanctity of life”.
“For many people there would be no benefit in this case,” said Mr Sachdeva.
“But for Tafida there would be because Tafida would not, on the evidence we have, wish to take a course which would to considered to be a sin, a significant sin, among the religious community to which she does belong.”
Ms Begum, who said she had given up her legal career so she could devote her time to Tafida, told the judge that her daughter would want doctors to keep providing life-support treatment.
“If it happens to me, I want my life to continue until a time that God actually takes me, not withdraw life support from me,” Ms Begum told the judge.
“Tafida would want to continue her life.”
She said Tafida would ask: “Why am I not being given a chance?”
Ms Begum said doctors had thought Tafida was going to die a number of times.
But she said her daughter had confounded expectations.
She said she was from a British-Bangladeshi Muslim family.
An Islamic scholar had told her that she could not agree to life support treatment ending.
Muslim law said only God could end life and taking life was a “great sin” and an “evil act”.
“With time and rehabilitation, we hope that some of her functions may return,” said Ms Begum.
“Even if it doesn’t return, we would still think she should get a chance to live her life the way it is.”
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