Parents of seriously ill toddler at centre of life-support treatment fight plead to bring her home

Parents of a seriously ill two-year-old girl at the centre of a life-support treatment fight have made a desperate plea to be allowed to bring their daughter home after doctors decided that her care should be withdrawn.

Alta Fixsler suffered a severe brain injury at birth and needs mechanical ventilation to help her to breathe.

She has spent every day of her short life in hospital.

Her parents have been caught up in a long legal battle with the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust to bring their daughter home after the foundation won the right to remove life-sustaining treatment after a High Court judge ruled in May that it would be in Alta's best interests.

British medical experts say the two-year-old is living in constant pain and it is therefore "not in (her) best interests for such treatment, including mechanical ventilation, to be continued".

Last month High Court judges denied an appeal for the decision to be overturned.

But Alta’s parents do not believe their daughter is experiencing any pain and point to letters from doctors in Israel and the US that say existing care "is not likely causing or prolonging pain or suffering".

British doctors want to take her off life support, but Mr and Mrs Fixsler say their Jewish faith means they cannot “in the current circumstances” agree to steps which would lead to her death.

The couple are desperate to bring Alta home.

"Because when she's here, we can do much more things we can play with my other child in the same time that she's here next to me. You know, it's your house you can bring people to visit... It's a much different situation than when you going to the hospital and sitting there and you feel like a ghost," Mr Fixsler tells ITV News.

Her mother says, that as Alta's parents, they should be allowed to decide what happens to her."Because it's my child, and I love her and I want her close me as much as possible, as long as possible, to have the time together.

"And also it's like, you're finally to feel like a family, everyone is at home, we're all together, and it's a different, very different feeling to be everyone at home and feel like a family as long as possible."

Estimates of Alta’s future life expectancy range from six months to two years.Mr Fixsler says the experience has dented his faith in the NHS and has sought opinions from doctors overseas, who say they could provide help.

"I believe that the NHS could sometimes it will things, but from, from our point of view, we lost our trust. And so have a lot of people around me from the Jewish community in Manchester, and in London, all UK, and people around the world, and Israel and in the United States," he tells ITV News. "So, we lost the trust, and it started, not just now, it just started when Alta was born, the way she was born. And we feel that there is a lot of things going on, and that we didn't know before. That's when we started to lost the trust."

A spokesperson for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust said: “We recognise that this is an incredibly difficult and distressing time for Alta’s family and we will continue to support them. Due to patient confidentiality, we are unable to comment further.”

Mr Fixsler told ITV News their religion means they "believe in life are no matter what life is".

"We should leave the patient to live the life as it is, because we are not the decision maker on life or death."The story is being watched closely by the local Orthodox Jewish community. Salford-based Rabbi Arnold Saunders warns of "untold repercussions" if the NHS withdraws treatment for Alta. It is wrong to remove care when there are options available, he says, adding that some Jewish people may become "reluctant to trust the NHS" as a result of the decisions being made.

Alta has been under round-the-clock care by the NHS since she was born prematurely.

Doctors say Alta cannot breathe, eat or drink without sophisticated medical treatment. The couple say they do not understand why hospital bosses will not agree to a transfer to Israel.

At the hearing in May, lawyers representing the trust told the court that there is “no prospect of her ever getting better”.

In a judgment delivered at the end of the hearing May, Mr Justice MacDonald ruled that “it is in Alta’s best interests for the treatment that is currently sustaining her precious life now to be withdrawn”.

He said taking Alta to Israel for treatment to continue there would “expose Alta to further pain and discomfort during the course of transfer for no medical benefit in circumstances where all parties accept that the treatment options now available for Alta provide no prospect of recovery”.

The judge added: “The parents cannot be criticised for having reached a different decision informed by the religious laws that govern their way of life.

“But applying the secular legal principles that I must, and according due respect to the deeply held religious convictions of the parents, I cannot agree with their assessment and am required to act accordingly.”