A mum and dad are making a desperate plea to keep their baby son on a ventilator because they believe a miracle could save him. The four-month-old baby suffered a “catastrophic” head injury and was declared brain-stem dead. Doctors tried to make a decision on the child’s treatment earlier this summer, but his parents objected. So Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust took the case to the High Court and asked a judge to make the call. Mr Justice Hayden was asked to declare the baby dead after hearing the baby’s brain was not working. But everything changed when a nurse noticed the little boy trying to breathe. The boy’s parents – Muslims of Bangladeshi origin who cannot be named for legal reasons – saw their son’s attempts to breathe as a miracle and want him to remain on a ventilator. Hospital bosses reverted to ‘clinically pronounced dead’ after the baby tried to breathe (Image: Shutterstock) The hospital withdrew the “clinical declaration of death” and left the next steps to Mr Justice Hayden. Last week it ruled that doctors could withdraw the ventilator but continue to provide palliative care – when treatment focuses on reducing pain rather than trying to make someone better. He said the evidence showed the baby was dying and had a “complete lack of capacity to benefit from treatment”.
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But the boy’s parents have appealed and two judges at a preliminary hearing at the Court of Appeal in London will consider the case today. A senior doctor said he had never been in this situation before and apologized to the baby’s parents. He assured them that the review was underway. Mr Justice Hayden ruled that neither the boy nor the doctors involved in his care could be named in media reports of the case. Contact our news team by emailing [email protected] For more stories like this, check out our news page.
