Baby who tried to breathe does not have ‘functioning’ brain, neurologist tells court

A baby who tried to breathe after doctors said he was dead does not have a “functioning” brain, a neurologist has told a High Court judge overseeing the latest stage of a life-support fight.

The neurologist told Mr Justice Poole on Tuesday that the five-month-old boy’s brain had “effectively died” and said “continuing life-support” was futile.

Mr Justice Poole is overseeing a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London and has visited the boy, who is in a specialist unit at a London hospital.

Specialists treating the boy, who is on a ventilator, say he has suffered a “catastrophic” brain injury, has “no prospect” of recovering and should be removed from a ventilator and given only palliative care.

But the boy’s parents have urged the judge to give him more time.

The unnamed couple, who are Muslims and of Bangladeshi origin, want their son to have time to “make progress”, or for “Allah to intervene”.

“(The boy’s) brain is not growing,” the neurologist told Mr Justice Poole on Tuesday.

“He does not have a functioning brain.”

The neurologist added: “His brain has effectively died.”

He said continuing life-support treatment was “futile”.

The boy’s parents recently lost a High Court fight when another judge, Mr Justice Hayden, decided that treatment should end.

But Court of Appeal judges ordered a fresh trial after upholding an appeal by the boy’s parents and concluding they had not had a fair hearing.

On Monday the barrister leading the couple’s legal team told Mr Justice Poole that clinicians had already made a "most profound mistake".

Victoria Butler-Cole KC argued that the boy should be given "more time".

On Tuesday she told the judge: “If he remains severely disabled … that continues to be a life that has value.”

Mr Justice Poole finished hearing evidence and said he would deliver a ruling on Wednesday.

Timeline of how events unfolded in the life-support treatment case

June: Judges hear how doctors diagnosed the two-month-old baby as brain-stem dead but he remained on a ventilator because his parents were unhappy with the diagnosis.

July: The boy starts trying to breathe in early July, after a preliminary High Court hearing. Specialists then rescind “the clinical ascertainment of death” and trust lawyers asked Mr Justice Hayden to instead decide what moves are in the boy’s best interests.

August: A senior doctor tells a High Court judge she did not know of other cases in which a seriously ill baby started trying to breathe after being declared dead by medics

A judge is told a fatwa has been issued, though not addressed to any specific person.

The parents lose their court case.

September: The baby's parents win the right to appeal against the verdict.

They are interviewed by police after evidence suggested the boy had suffered what “appeared” to be “non-accidental injuries”. No charges had been brought, but the couple remain under investigation.

Mr Justice Poole tells the court on Monday that nothing had been proved in relation to the parents being questioned and hearing that police involvement in the case would not affect his decision.

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