The parents of five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb, who is on life support, are going to the High Court to challenge an NHS decision which is preventing them from taking her abroad. Do doctors or parents get to decide what happens to sick children?
What’s happened in Tafida’s case?
Tafida Raqeeb suffered a traumatic brain injury in February as a result of a rare condition, arteriovenous malformation, where a tangle of blood vessels causes blood to bypass the brain tissue.
Tafida’s mother, Shelina Begum, and her father, Mohammed Raqeeb, want to seek treatment in Italy. But the Royal London Hospital, which is caring for their daughter, says releasing her is not in her best interests.
A spokesperson for Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said that its clinicians and independent medical experts had found “further medical treatment would not improve her condition”.
