Child in UK ‘defies odds’ to survive withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment

LONDON — A young child born with severe disabilities has confounded doctors by surviving the withdrawal of life-support treatment in what is believed to be a unique case, and should receive full treatment again, a British judge has ordered.

The four-year-old boy, who cannot be identified as is usual in medical cases involving children, was born in March 2020 with a brain malformation and other serious medical issues and was placed on a ventilator last October after he suffered two heart attacks.

His parents are devout Orthodox Christians and had wanted to take their child to an Italian hospital associated with the Vatican for further treatment, saying despite his serious condition he was a "gift from God" whose life was meaningful.

Doctors at King's College Hospital in south London, however, said there was no prospect he would recover and that the child would survive for just a few days after treatment ended.

Judge Nigel Poole ruled at London's High Court in April that it was in the child's best interests for life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn and it was stopped in May.

But, over four months later, the child has "defied the odds" and is now living at home with his parents, Poole said in his ruling.

Poole said in a ruling published this week that lawyers representing the child's parents and the National Health Service were not aware of another reported case in which a child has survived for months after the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment following a court decision.

"He has confounded all medical expectations and his case underlines the maxim that 'medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability'," the judge added.

Poole ruled that limits he had previously imposed on the treatment doctors could provide to the child should be lifted after the child's recovery.

He also said that the case was "highly unusual" and that his decision in April had been justified on the evidence.

A law firm representing the child's parents and King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Reuters