My plea to the Queen to keep Pippa, 5, alive
Mother in bid for Mercy order after courts back docs
A MUM battling to stop doctors turning off her five-year-old daughter’s life support has taken her fight to the Queen.
Paula Parfitt is hoping Her Majesty will intervene to save braindamaged Pippa Knight by granting a Prerogative of Mercy order.
Historically used by monarchs since the 17th century to commute a death sentence, it can now be used to change any penalty.
Paula’s move follows a Court of Appeal and Supreme Court refusal to overturn a High Court decision backing doctors treating Pippa at London’s Evelina Children’s Hospital. At 20 months, in December 2016, Pippa was hit by a brain disorder after a chest infection and hand, foot and mouth disease.
Doctors believe she developed acute necrotising encephalopathy triggered by viruses.
After an MRI scan, parents Paula and Karl Knight were advised to turn off Pippa’s life support. The couple refused and, after three months in hospital and a further three months in a rehabilitation centre, Pippa was allowed to return home in June 2017.
Sadly, Karl died that year, without seeing the progress his girl made. She learned how to walk with a frame and regained some speech.
But in January 2019 she had a fever which led to another brain injury and she had to battle back from multi-organ failure.
I want to say to her ‘please give Pippa a chance’. I pray that she supports us
MUM PAULA ON HER APPEAL TO QUEEN TO INTERVENE
CONDOLENCES
She has remained on ventilation in intensive care ever since and medics say she is in a vegetative state with “no prospect of improvement”.
But Paula, 41, takes Pippa on to the hospital balcony on portable ventilation, and says: “I understand how it feels for your husband to pass away and I offer my deepest condolences to the Queen.
“But I want to say to her, ‘please give my Pippa a chance’. Two years and three months after doctors said she wouldn’t survive, she is still here. She’s proved she wants to survive.”
She says her daughter has shown signs of movement and wants her put on a portable ventilator so she can return to her home in Strood, Kent. Paula is also appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.
“Pippa is my inspiration. I get my strength from her,” says Christian Paula. “I will never give up on her.
“All I’m asking for is a tracheostomy and portable ventilation, and the right to bring her home so she is surrounded by her family and can have proper physiotherapy.
“I know she can hear me. I do not agree she is vegetative. I hope and pray the Queen supports us.”
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Evelina Children’s Hospital, said: “This is a tragic case and the decision to bring it before court was made only after the most careful consideration and review of all the available evidence.”