Decide if my baby lives, distraught mother asks court

A MOTHER asked a judge to decide whether her 18-month-old son should live or die because she could not decide herself, a court heard.

Doctors were then given permission to stop providing life support treatment to the child, who suffered brain damage after choking on a plastic cap at home. A judge approved the withdrawal of “mechanical ventilation” after specialists told how the boy was in a deep coma and completely unresponsive, and said treatment was futile.

Mr Justice Hayden, who analysed the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said the pain the child’s parents were suffering was probably “too acute” for most people to imagine.

Doctors told the judge the boy would die quite quickly once life support treatment stopped.

The judge said neither the boy, who went into cardiac arrest after the cap lodged in his throat in February, nor his location, could be identified in media reports.

But he said officials at the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which is based in London and has responsibility for the child’s care, had asked for the withdrawal of treatment to be approved. Mr Justice Hayden said the boy’s father supported the trust’s application.

The child’s mother, who has a “deepseated” religious faith, had not felt “able to participate in that decision” and wanted a judge to decide.

“In February, when he was only 15 months old, tragedy struck him and his family,” said Mr Justice Hayden.

“It came out of nowhere. He choked on a small plastic medicine cap whilst at home with his Mum.”

Mr Justice Hayden added: “All of us – doctors, lawyers, judges, parents – try to empathise… But the truth, I suspect, is that the pain of this trauma is too acute for most of us really to try to imagine.”

The judge said he had given the case “anxious consideration” and read evidence with “extreme care”.

He said there was no more important decision a judge could be asked to make. “It is ultimately a decision of life or death,” he said. “But what is truly in focus is the right of this little boy, with whom I am concerned, not to die, but to live whatever remains of his life, however short that may be, in a way that is in his best interests.”

Doctors said the boy’s brain had been deprived of oxygen for about 50 minutes when he choked. They said his pupils were now fixed, and that he was unable to move or breathe.

A family spokesman said the father wanted to thank the medical team, and added: “He also wishes to thank the court for taking the very difficult decision to rule on the end of his child’s life.”

‘All of us try to empathise, but I suspect the pain of this trauma is too acute for most of us really to try to imagine’