Medics removed sick woman's feeding tube without permission at London hospital

A woman being treated at a London hospital went without a feeding tube for almost a month after staff removed the device without permission.

The family of the sick woman discovered she was being "deprived" of nutrition at a hospital run by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.

A court hearing was told that if the woman, who is in her 70s, had died police might have begun a manslaughter investigation.

The Trust, which is based in Harrow, north-west London, and runs a number of hospitals, issued an apology at a court hearing after the woman’s son began legal action.

Medics removed the device without telling her relatives or asking for a judge’s approval.

The hearing took place in the Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions are considered.

A barrister representing the woman’s son told Mrs Justice Arbuthnot that the woman, who is in a "prolonged disorder of consciousness" had been "deprived" of nutrition.

Katie Gollop QC said the woman had given instructions to her children, when giving them a power of attorney, and had written on a form: "I want to live and you must fight to help me to live."

"It was quite wrong for the trust to withdraw or withhold any form of treatment in the context that it did," Gollop told the judge.

"In this country in 2021 a patient has been deprived of nutrition without their nearest and dearest being consulted."

The woman’s son and daughter "are very concerned that the trust is unilaterally withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining treatment that the trust knows they, as attorneys, wish (their mother) to have," Gollop said in a written case outline.

Gollop said what had happened was "intolerable" and requested that the Trust pay her her client's legal bills.

Judge Arbuthnot said there was a "real problem" and said she was "dismayed" by the "poor communication" at the hospital.

The judge oversaw a public hearing online late on Thursday after lawyers representing the woman’s son made an application for an urgent hearing.

Arbuthnot indicated that she would want a report explaining "what on earth has gone wrong."

She said the woman could not be identified in media reports of the case but that the trust could be named.

Barrister Eloise Power told a judge overseeing the case that she had been instructed to offer a "sincere apology" to the woman and her family.

More court hearings are likely and a judge is expected to make decisions about what moves are in the woman’s best interests.