Parents of Tafida Raqeeb win High Court battle to take her to Italy
3 October 2019, 11:17
A couple who want to move their severely disabled five-year-old daughter to an Italian hospital have won a High Court life-support treatment fight.
Specialists caring for Tafida Raqeeb at the Royal London Hospital said further treatment would be futile because the youngster has permanent brain damage.
The child's parents want to move her to Gaslini children's hospital in Genoa, and have organised funding.
Her mother said doctors there would keep providing life-support treatment until Tafida was diagnosed as brain dead.
They said Tafida, who has a British-Bangladeshi background, is from a Muslim family and Islamic law only allows God to end life.
Ms Begum, 39, and Mr Raqeeb, 45, were in court to hear a judge ruled that Tafida can be moved in Italy.
Barrister David Lock QC, who represented them, said: "My clients have asked me to express their profound thanks."
He said the ruling the ruling was an "enormous relief" to the parents and that they "wanted to get on with the transfer".
Lawyers representing the trust said bosses would consider an appeal.
Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the Royal London Hospital, had asked the judge to rule that stopping life-support treatment was in Tafida's best interests.
They had taken instructions from a relative and their application was backed by Tafida's parents.
Mr Justice MacDonald, who heard the case, was told about how Tafida woke her parents in the early hours of a morning in February, complaining of a headache.
She collapsed shortly afterwards and doctors discovered that blood vessels in her brain were tangled and had ruptured.
