Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A man whom doctors wanted to allow to die if his condition worsened is not, as was thought, in a persistent vegetative state, according to new evidence on the eve of a court ruling about his case.
The 55-year-old man from Greater Manchester, known only as L, was said by the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust to be beyond recovery after suffering brain damage from a third heart attack. His doctors wanted an assurance from the court of protection in London that they did not have to resuscitate him or put him on a ventilator, should his condition become life-threatening.
L's family strongly opposed the hospital's stance, telling the court they did not believe he was beyond hope of recovery and that their religion, Islam, required that everything possible should be done to keep L alive.
The case took a sudden twist on Thursday when an independent neurologist, Dr Peter Newman, who had been due to give evidence in support of the hospital, was shown video footage which he said demonstrated that L was no longer in a persistent vegetative state.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/23/court-case-man-not-vegetative-evidence
The 55-year-old man from Greater Manchester, known only as L, was said by the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust to be beyond recovery after suffering brain damage from a third heart attack. His doctors wanted an assurance from the court of protection in London that they did not have to resuscitate him or put him on a ventilator, should his condition become life-threatening.
L's family strongly opposed the hospital's stance, telling the court they did not believe he was beyond hope of recovery and that their religion, Islam, required that everything possible should be done to keep L alive.
The case took a sudden twist on Thursday when an independent neurologist, Dr Peter Newman, who had been due to give evidence in support of the hospital, was shown video footage which he said demonstrated that L was no longer in a persistent vegetative state.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/23/court-case-man-not-vegetative-evidence