UK HC allows brain-damaged British-Bangladeshi girl to go abroad for treatment

In a victory for the parents of a brain-damaged 5-year-old British-Bangladeshi girl, the UK High Court on Thursday allowed them to take her to Italy to continue her treatment. Tafida Raqeeb has been on life support at the Royal London Hospital since suffering a traumatic brain injury in February, the BBC reported.

Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital in Whitechapel, wanted to switch off her life-support machine, saying she will never recover from her injuries. UK specialists had argued any further treatment would be futile.

Tafida's parents sought a judicial review at the High Court last month. But the hospital asked the judge to rule that ending Tafida's life-support was in her best interests. Her Parents Shelina Begum and Mohammed Raqeeb pleaded for Tafida to go to a hospital in Italy and be kept alive hoping she improved and made a full recovery.

Justice MacDonald analysed evidence in the case at the High Court and ruled that Tafida can be moved to Italy, the report said. Her parents have organised funding to take her to the Gaslini children's hospital in Genoa, Italy, it said.

Her parents said doctors in Italy would continue to treat their daughter until she was diagnosed as brain dead. They argued that Tafida was from a Muslim family and Islamic law said only God could take the decision to end her life.

Following the ruling, Raqeeb said the couple were "thrilled by the judgement". Their barrister David Lock said the ruling was an "enormous relief" for the couple who he said now "wanted to get on with the transfer".

Lawyers representing Barts Health NHS Trust said hospital bosses would consider appealing against the ruling. Barrister Katie Gollop told Justice MacDonald that his ruling could have implications for other children.

The High Court had heard that Tafida woke her parents one morning in February complaining that she had a headache, and then had collapsed. She was taken to hospital where doctors discovered that blood vessels in her brain were tangled and had ruptured.

In his ruling, Justice MacDonald found that "where a child is not in pain and is not aware of his or her parlous situation, these cases can place the objective best interests test under some stress". "Tests must be looked for in subjective or highly value laden ethical, moral or religious factors... which mean different things to different people in a diverse, multicultural, multi-faith society," he said.

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