Newcastle hospitals: Baby injured in bath to have ventilator removed

The child is being cared for by Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

A one-year-old boy who was left brain damaged when he was found face down in a bath can have his ventilator removed, a High Court judge ruled.

The boy was four months old when he was left unattended for a short time and his father found him without a pulse.

Newcastle Hospitals Trust said removing the ventilation would be in the child's best interests, but his parents had asked for more time.

Mr Justice Hayden said it was a tragedy "of almost immeasurable dimension".

The court heard in the incident in June the boy had been wearing an inflatable device when his mother left the room to get a towel.

When his father entered a short time later he found the baby unresponsive.

The boy, referred to as H, was taken to hospital but went at least 29 minutes before his heart restarted, resulting in a significant brain injury due to the lack of oxygen.

The boy has now been on a ventilator for eight months and cannot successfully breathe for himself, the court heard.

The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust also asked for a judge to rule it was in the boy's best interest not to perform CPR if he had a heart attack, and that he should be provided with palliative care.

His parents - known as Mrs A and Mr B - had argued during the three-day hearing earlier this month the trust had not properly considered their son's recent behaviours.

'Devastating brain injury'

In a judgment published on Tuesday Mr Justice Hayden found it was in H's best interest for ventilation to be stopped.

"The reality from this early stage was that this was a brain injury of such devastating consequence that there was a vanishingly small prospect of survival," he said.

"Even a prospect characterised in these terms, however, would be enough for many parents to cling on to. It certainly was for Mrs A and Mr B in this case."

H's parents had argued there were signs of improvement and said their son continued to grow and responded to touch.

However, medical experts disagreed and one doctor told the court it was "unlikely that H experiences either pain or pleasure".

Mr Justice Hayden said the changes were "understandably misinterpreted as indicators of recovery by parents, suffused with inexhaustible hope", and praised the couple for their "enormous devotion".

"That these young and loving parents have been unable to take this decision themselves is, or ought to be, readily understood by any right-thinking person," the judge concluded.

"Sometimes, a loving parent is simply the least able to countenance such a course, even where it is, objectively, in their child's best interests."