Judge grants Tafida, aged 5, chance to live
Dramatic ruling means sick little girl can go to Italy for treatment
‘Justice has been served’
A SICK little girl was given a chance of life yesterday in a landmark ruling that hailed parents’ rights.
A judge stunned NHS doctors by blocking their bid to switch off Tafida Raqeeb’s life support.
The five-year-old’s mother Shelina Begum, 39, sobbed and said ‘we won, we won, we won’ following the shock verdict at the High Court.
Then she ran into the arms of her family and hugged her tearful husband Mohammed Raqeeb, 45.
The couple’s lawyer hailed the legal victory as establishing that parents know best as to what care is right for their child. Medical and legal experts said the ruling could encourage more parents of desperately ill children to fight against doctors who think it is kinder to let them die.
Last night the parents of brain-damaged Tafida began preparations to transfer her within ten days to a hospital in Genoa, Italy.
Tafida was a previously healthy fouryear-old in reception class when she suffered a burst blood vessel in her head in February.
Royal London Hospital doctors say she can no longer move, see or feel. They said she had no prospect of getting better and that it would be kinder to let her die.
They asked the High Court in London to sanction the removal of tubes that help her breathe. Tafida’s mother, a solicitor, took the witness stand and pleaded with the judge to spare her daughter. Unlike in the cases of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans, the judge yesterday came down firmly on the side of Tafida’s jubilant family.
Tafida’s parents have fought for her to be given more time to recover from a coma.
The Royal London Hospital in East London was left reeling, with its QC telling the court it was ‘grappling’ with the enormity of the decision. The hospital will return to court today to announce whether it will try to appeal the judgment – potentially prolonging the agony for Tafida’s parents.
But yesterday their QC David Lock praised the judge for ruling that ‘decisions for medical treatment belong to the parents in the first instance’.
In his ruling, Mr Justice MacDonald noted how the devoted parents had rarely left their daughter’s bedside in eight months, and suggested the case was one in which it was right that difficult decisions ‘will be taken by a parent in the exercise of their responsibility’.
Outside court, Miss Begum said she was ‘relieved’ at her family’s victory. The couple had to hear an independent guardian – appointed by the court to represent Tafida’s interests – agreeing with doctors that she was better off dead.
Miss Begum said: ‘The entire experience of having to fight for our daughter’s life over the last three months has been exhausting and traumatic for all of her family and we are glad it is now finally over.
‘It is vital for Tafida that she is transferred to the Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa at the earliest opportunity.’
She added: ‘Justice has been served.’
In a hearing last month, the court heard that Tafida was in a ‘minimally aware’ state but was not suffering pain and could potentially live for another 20 years.
Her parents have been told by independent specialists she could make a partial recovery from the severe brain injury if given a year or more.