Touchdown for Tafida
Family’s hope as seriously ill girl, 5, is flown to Italy for treatment
WHeeLeD on a stretcher across the tarmac of an italian airport, seriously ill tafida Raqeeb starts the next chapter of her battling recovery last night.
As the five-year-old settled into a children’s hospital in the port city of Genoa after her flight in a specially-equipped hospital jet, her parents told of their relief, joy and new sense of hope.
tafida, who has shown a habit of defying the odds, was given a chance to live earlier this month when a High court judge blocked doctors from switching off her life-support machine. in a landmark ruling, he allowed the brain-damaged schoolgirl to be transferred from an nHs hospital, which had deemed her treatment ‘futile’, to Genoa, where medics will care for her as long as her parents want.
the city’s deputy mayor Francesca Fassio warmly greeted tafida’s parents before they were driven to Gaslini children’s hospital – italy’s equivalent of Great ormond street.
As she started her extraordinary journey, tafida’s mother shelina Begum told the Mail: ‘i am feeling joyful and extremely excited – my daughter has been given a life to live.’
the little girl’s jubilant family released dozens of balloons outside the Royal London Hospital as, inside, tafida was signed over to the care of four italian medics. she was taken in a private ambulance from the Whitechapel hospital to Biggin Hill airport in south-east London, where the Gaslini’s specially- equipped Learjet 45 had flown in earlier.
it had space for tafida’s bed, her artificial ventilator machine and the team of doctors to look after her on the flight.
Miss Begum, 39, said: ‘now the next phase in tafida’s life starts. she is stable and we are ready. Right now, i would give up my life for my daughter to live. i am relieved she has been given the opportunity to live.’
tafida was a bubbly little girl in reception class when she suffered a burst blood vessel in her brain in February. she had a seven-hour operation and was given a one per cent chance of surviving before slipping into a coma. she was then given 24 hours to live but, after two weeks, opened her eyes. ever since her family, from newham, east London, have kept vigil by her bedside. Doctors said she had no chance of recovery and the nHs asked the High court to sanction the removal of her breathing tubes. But after tafida’s mother pleaded with a judge, he came down on the family’s side. At the Gaslini, tafida will undergo an advanced rehabilitation programme to try to help her walk again. Miss Begum said: ‘tafida will paddle in the sea. she will get to feel the breeze on her face. it will be the first time she will have been in the fresh air since February.’ the parents say they are not deluded and know their ‘bubbly, bright’ girl will never be the same, even with treatment. But they cling to the hope her damaged brain may build new blood vessel connections and she may emerge from her coma. they will now spend most of their time in Genoa and have raised £35,000 of a £400,000 target to fund their costs.