A couple fighting to take their seriously-ill daughter to a specialist hospital in Italy are due to appear at the High Court in London on Monday.
Five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb has been at Royal London Hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit for more than four months, where doctors treating her have now said there is no chance of recovery following a sudden traumatic brain injury earlier this year.
Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the Whitechapel hospital, have stated that stopping “life-sustaining treatment” is in the youngster’s best interests.
However, Tafida’s mother, solicitor Shelina Begum, and father Mohammed Raqeeb, a construction consultant, want to move her to Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa, Italy for further treatment.
They have organised funding for the treatment, including a crowfunding page which has raised close to £25,000 in donations.
The couple, from Newham, have described Gaslini as the Italian equivalent of Great Ormond Street Hospital, and say there are specialists at the hospital who are willing to treat their daughter.
A judge is expected to make decisions about Tafida’s future following a trial at the High Court in London this week, with Mr Justice MacDonald due to start hearing evidence on Monday.
Solicitor Mathieu Culverhouse, from law firm Irwin Mitchell, who is working with Tafida’s family, says there is no evidence that the youngster will be harmed if moved to Italy.
“The heartbroken family do not want to be caught in a situation where the State overrules the parents’ good intentions to arrange treatment in a hospital of their choosing for their disabled daughter,” he said.
“There is no evidence Tafida will be harmed during transit or abroad and her loving parents should have a legal right to elect to transfer their daughter to another hospital for private medical care.”
Barrister Katie Gollop QC, who is leading Barts Health NHS Trust’s legal team, told Justice MacDonald at a preliminary hearing last week that Tafida has “very serious, permanent and irreversible damage to her brain”.
She said the youngster has been in the Royal London’s paediatric intensive care unit for more than four months.
“Since around mid-July, (Tafida’s) parents and doctors have not been able to reach agreement about whether her treatment should continue,” she said.
“Given the lack of agreement, the trust applied to the Family Division of the High Court for a determination of Tafida’s best interests.”
She added: “In July, the Gaslini hospital in Italy offered to provide continuing treatment starting immediately.
“Tafida’s parents, who wish to move her there, have secured private funding to pay for treatment in Italy.”
She said doctors’ views on whether treatment should continue had nothing to do with money.