No life-saving intervention for child

An acutely ill and profoundly disabled 10-year-old girl in State care should not receive emergency life-saving intervention if it is needed, the High Court has ruled.

She will receive palliative care but should she require cardiac resuscitation, surgery, artificial ventilation, or general anaesthesia, doctors have been given permission to follow their clinical judgment not to provide such aggressive treatment.

Her doctor wants her to be able to return to residential care, which has been her home for most of her life, where she can live out her last days in comfort and peace.