Hospital cleared to end life-support for brain-damaged baby
The mother was 39 weeks pregnant and in cardiac arrest when she arrived at the hospital by ambulance on Tuesday and required resuscitation, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, was told at a sitting last night.
The baby boy was delivered by an emergency Caesarean and the mother was then transferred to the intensive care unit in another hospital, the judge heard. Her condition was critical and a decision to withdraw treatment was made. She died shortly afterwards.
When the baby was born, his weight was 3.9kg, he had no respiratory activity, and needed artificial ventilation. He remains on a ventilator and heart support, is severely brain damaged suffering from severe encephalopathy, and is being administered morphine as doctors believe he is suffering and in pain.
Doctors believe the baby has only a 10% chance of surviving longer than 28 days and, if he does so, he will be severely and profoundly physically and mentally disabled, unable to move or swallow, requiring lifelong care. Doctors also considered keeping the child on a ventilator would prolong his suffering when his prognosis was very poor.
Because the baby’s parents were not married and the baby’s mother was his sole legal guardian, the hospital needed a court order to withdraw life sustaining treatment from him, said Eileen Barrington SC, for the hospital. Both parents are Irish, counsel added.
Ms Barrington said the child’s mother had named her own mother as her next of kin. Doctors had explained the situation to the grandmother and the child’s father, and both were consenting to the life-sustaining treatment being withdrawn. The father had named the baby, counsel added.
On the basis of the evidence and the law, the judge said he would accede to the hospital’s application.
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