A four-year-old boy has left doctors shocked after his condition miraculously improved when his life support was switched off.
The youngster – who was born with serious disabilities and cannot see or hear – suffered a serious brain infection which caused two heart attacks.
He had been kept alive on a life machine since 2023, but earlier this year, his Christian parents lost a High Court bid against King’s College Hospital NHS Trust to send him to a Vatican-backed hospital in Italy for more treatment.
The judge ruled that the boy, who cannot be named, should not be “forced to live” as the burden on the child “far, far outweighed the benefits”.
A four-year-old boy has left doctors shocked after his condition miraculously improved when his life support was switched offPAHowever, within months of being taken off life support, his condition improved drastically and has returned home.
A new report from the judge states that the boy no longer requires a catheter, receives nutrition through a vein and is breathing normally.
Justice Poole said: “He has confounded all medical expectations and his case underlines the maxim that ‘medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability’.”
King’s College Hospital also accepted it would not have asked for permission to withhold treatment if the boy had been “in his current condition and circumstances”.
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The judge added that barristers: “Could not point to any reported case in which a child has survived for months after the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment following a court decision”.
But “having anxiously reflected” on his previous judgment from April, he was satisfied it had been “justified” on the evidence provided.
During his April ruling, the judge said: “Namely that the burdens to him of treating him to keep him alive far outweigh the benefits, and that it is in his best interests for life-sustaining treatment to cease.”
However, the boy’s parents – Mr and Mrs R – said the decision was “wholly unethical to bring about his death by choice”.
A new report from the judge states that the boy no longer requires a catheter, receives nutrition through a vein and is breathing normally (stock image)
PA
In his latest ruling, he said the boy “continues to suffer the burdens of his condition and of some of the treatment … there is also evidence that he is now able to derive pleasure from his life at home with his parents”.
Responding to the judgement reversal, Mrs R said: “Our basic point is that statistics don’t help.
“It would be more honest if doctors acknowledged that he is an individual that medical science doesn’t really understand and isn’t a good basis for predicting what this complicated little boy can do.
“[The boy] survived when the doctors and nurses who looked after him for months thought he could not. He has a right to life. It seems to us his will to live is strong and his life is good.”