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Judge Orders Hospital to Keep Treating Shopkeeper Family's Court Battle Against NHS Trust

Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

A JUDGE yesterday ruled that a hospital must continue treating a retired shopkeeper from Glasgow two days after doctors turned off his life-support machine.

At the High Court in London, Justice Kirkwood said that the Royal Lancaster Infirmary must continue to treat Raja Barkat Ahmed, 86, at least until next Wednesday, when a final ruling will be made on whether the hospital should continue treatment.

Mr Ahmed has been on a ventilator in the hospital for six weeks after suffering kidney failure and a heart attack.

Last week, his family won the first round of their legal battle to keep him alive when a judge ruled that he must be treated and given kidney dialysis pending further tests.

The ruling came after doctors said they wanted to switch off his life-support machine although he was speaking and eating normally.

Mr Ahmed, who worked on the Glasgow buses when he first came to Britain in 1961 before running a shop in Castlemilk, also contracted MRSA after being admitted to the hospital.

However, the family said the hospital said he was now clear of this.

He had been on a trip to Pakistan when he began suffering kidney problems and his family decided to bring him home and care for him.

He was on the last leg of his journey to Glasgow by car when his condition deteriorated and an ambulance was called to take him to the RLI.

A report by one of the doctors involved in the case described Mr Ahmed's treatment as "futile".

The RLI had wanted to transfer him to a Glasgow hospital but health officials in Scotland refused to accept him.

It was after this that Morecambe Bay NHS Hospitals Trust launched a legal fight.

Mr Ahmed's eldest son, Raja IbrarAhmed, said doctors contacted the family on Tuesday and explained to them that his father's condition had become so weak that it would be advisable to switch off his life-support machine.

Raja Ibrar, 49, a taxi driver who was born and brought up in Glasgow, said the family reluctantly agreed to the move after doctors told them his father would die peacefully within an hour.

He said seven members of the family attended the hospital and prayed at the bedside when the machine was switched off at 10.45pm.

"We prayed throughout the night, " he added. "As we prayed my father's heart rate stabilised, falling from about 180 beats a minute to a more normal rate of 98 beats.

"He continued to progress throughout the night and, at 6am, when I left his bedside for a few minutes, he opened his eyes and spoke to my wife asking her, 'Where is my son Ibrar?' He told her to bring my clothes and come to his bedside quickly."

Raja Ibrar, a father of three, said that he spoke to the family solicitor at 8am on Wednesday.

"I told him doctors had switched off my father's life support machine despite him appearing to be keeping much better. I said they were refusing to give him any more dialysis and they were not going to feed him. I said if he did not get treatment he would die."

Raja Ibrar said his solicitor and a barrister attended the hospital a short time later where they met with officials of the hospital trust.

Following the meeting, according to Raja Ibrar, a hearing was arranged in the family division of the High Court in London yesterday where Justice Kirkwood ruled that the RLI must continue with dialysis and treating Mr Ahmed until at least nextWednesday when a further hearing will take place.

Speaking last night at his home in Mansewood, Glasgow, Raja Ibrar said: "I feel today that some sort of justice has been done and my father is getting the treatment he deserves."

No-one from the hospital or trust could be contacted for comment last night.

Source: Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

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