A severely brain-damaged girl who the NHS believed should have her life support withdrawn has begun her journey to a specialist children’s hospital in Italy.
Tafida Raqeeb, 5, took off on a chartered plane from Biggin Hill airport this afternoon.
She was accompanied by her mother and four medical professionals from the Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa, Italy.
It is the first time a family who havefought an NHS trustin court to keep their child alive have won and then successfully moved their child abroad.
In a landmark case, a High Court judge ruled less than two weeks ago that Tafida’s life-sustaining treatment should be continued, paving the way for her transfer.
If all goes well, she will have a tracheostomy – a procedure to insert a tube into her windpipe – within her first few days of arriving.
Her parents hope the tube will help her breath without a ventilator.
Later she is also expected to have a feeding tube put into her stomach and undergo intensive neurorehabilitation.
Although doctors agree Tafida can’t be cured and will always be severely disabled, the Gaslini hospital has said it feels it can care for Tafida.
The NHS maintained that continued treatment would not be in Tafida’s best interests and would cause her further “physical degradation”.
Tafida collapsed in February after complaining of headaches.
She suffered ruptured blood vessels in her brain which left her with catastrophic brain damage.
It was caused by a previously undiagnosed rare condition which caused tangled veins and arteries in her brain.
In the early weeks and months her parents were told a number of times that she would not survive but she did against the odds .
Then shortly after her fifth birthday in June, Tafida’s parents Shelina Begum and Mohammed Raqeeb were told by doctors that they believed her treatment should be withdrawn.
Speaking to Sky News previously, Ms Begum
She said: “The doctors came in after 5pm, unannounced.
” They said ‘we’ve decided we’re going to withdraw care and take the burden away from you ‘. “
” In that moment we felt our world turned upside down. “
In court, doctors maintained that Tafida was in a “minimally conscious” state and there was almost no chance she would improve.
While they acknowledged she wasn’t in any pain, they argued she would likely develop other conditions such as epilepsy, spasticity and a curve in her spine if she was kept alive.
Her parents disagreed that she had no awareness, arguing that she was making improvements.
They showed videos in court where she appeared to respond to stimuli and her mother even arg ued she woke up to the sound of her voice.
They maintained that despite her young age, Tafida shared their strong Muslim faith which prioritises the sanctity of life and said that she would have wanted to live.
The judge ruled in their favor and paved the way for Tafida to travel to the Gaslini hospital where doctors had already assessed her by video link and agreed to treat her.
Ms Begum, remembering the three weeks they waited for the judge’s verdict, said: “Every single day I actually broke down.
” I was petrified, I was scared, I kept thinking, ‘what is it going to be? What is it going to be? ‘ Is it going to be a life sentence Tafida is going to get or is it going to be a death sentence? “
Her parents described today’s journey as a” turning point “for their family.
They said that they will be prioritizing Tafida’s sensory toys in their luggage.
They are crowdfunding to pay for Tafida’s continuing care and their legal costs.
They need to raise £ 400, 000 and currently only have around an eighth of that.
The case has drawn similarities with that of Charlie Guard and Alfie Evens.
Both boys suffered degenerative neurological conditions and the NHS Trusts involved argued that withdrawing treatment would be in their best interests .
Both sets of parents fought in court to keep their children alive and take them abroad for treatment but lost.
Although Tafida’s case does not set a stric t legal precedent, as individual cases are always judged on their merits, experts believe it could have a “chilling effect” on the NHS being willing to fight similar cases in future.
Ms Begum and Mr Raqeeb have said they want to see a change in the law which would give parents more say in cases like these.
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