Judge lets doctors switch off baby’s life support
DOCTORS treating a brain-damaged baby have been told they can stop life support against his parents’ wishes.
Specialists said giving more intensive care to 11-month-old Isaiah Haastrup is ‘futile, burdensome and not in his best interests’.
They had asked a judge to give them the go-ahead to provide only palliative care.
Isaiah’s mother, Takesha Thomas, and father Lanre Haastrup, both 36, wanted treatment to continue.
Mr Justice MacDonald, who analysed evidence at High Court hearing earlier this month, said he reached his decision with ‘profound sadness’.
Isaiah’s parents from Peckham, southeast London insisted their son responded to their voices and pleaded with the judge to rule that he should be kept alive.
His mother told the court her faith as a Pentecostal Christian meant she believed God should decide who lived or died.
Mr Haastrup, a lawyer, said his brain damage was caused by medical failings during his birth and the family has launched a separate legal action against the hospital for alleged clinical negligence.
He alleged the medical team deliberately tried to harm Isaiah, and the boy was sedated before an important test so he would appear unresponsive. He claimed one specialist told him they were ‘loathed’ at the hospital, and accused doctors of ignoring them.
He told the court: ‘The response we get is “You don’t have a say. We are doctors. We do what we like”.’
Yesterday the judge said there was no evidence doctors at London’s King’s College Hospital had tried to harm Isaiah or sedate him unnecessarily. He said the boy had been assessed by specialists from four hospitals, including two independent experts.
Mr Justice MacDonald said that ‘to continue to be subject to life-sustaining treatment will confine Isaiah to being kept alive for his entire life in an ICU [intensive care unit], his life is sustained by machines in a world he cannot meaningfully perceive or connect with.’
Mr Haastrup said he was ‘disappointed’ by the decision and wanted to speak to lawyers. A spokesman for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘The court’s decision to transfer Isaiah to palliative care is in his best interests and based on overwhelming expert evidence.’