Tragic baby’s life support pulled

BY TOBY PORTER
toby@slpmedia.co.uk

A 12-month-old baby boy who suffered massive brain damage at birth died on Wednesday after his parents fought all the way to the European Court of Human Rights to stop his life support being switched off.

Isaiah Haastrup spent all his life at King’s College Hospital (KCH) and managed to survive for more than four hours breathing independently after the final decision was taken to end his care.

The European Court decided on Wednesday morning that his Peckham solicitor father Lanre’s legal challenge was “inadmissible” and KCH switched off the machine the same day at around 3pm.

Lanre and Isaiah’s mother Takesha Thomas posted a series of bulletins on a special Facebook page after that, with images of the couple holding Isaiah – for the first and last time not hooked up to the breathing apparatus which had kept him alive.

The baby boy, who had his first birthday last month, suffered catastrophic brain injury after being deprived of oxygen at birth and could not move or breathe unaided. He was on a ventilator for all but the last hours of his life and had a profoundly depressed level of consciousness.

Lanre, 36, posted yesterday at 9am: “The doctors told the court he could not live beyond few minutes without a ventilator, which formed the basis of the court judgement. Evidently, nothing could be further from the truth. Our view that he could be weaned off the ventilator did not matter, only the doctors’.

Isaiah proved the doctors wrong and his parents right.

“The court must learn to take parents’ opinions with the same reverence as doctors’.

“Please pray for my son as he transits to heaven.”

Five hours later Monica A Zerbato said: “I am praying for you, wonderful Isaiah. It’s not right what you’re going through, your mum and your dad. Prayers and love for this wonderful family.”

At 6pm, Lanre posted: “We Need prayer warriors to pray for Isaiah, he has been independently breathing for three hours. God is working, please pray, pray, pray.”

An hour later, he added: “Four hours independent breathing and counting … Jesus continue…”
But soon Lanre had posted: “Isaiah died at 7.50pm. Thanks for the support.”

There had been two court hearings on February 21 – one before three appeal court judges to plead for a three-week adjournment so Lanre could prepare his appeal against a January 29 ruling ordering treatment to be withdrawn. The court ruled in favour of KCH, because it was not in the baby’s interests for treatment to continue, as he had no prospects of recovery.

A King’s College Hospital spokeswoman said: “Isaiah Haastrup suffered an irreversible brain injury following a rare and life-threatening obstetric emergency during his mother’s labour.

“Since birth he had been fully dependent on life support with no prospect of improvement, and throughout we actively sought to engage and involve Isaiah’s parents in his care.

“The best interests of our patients must always come first. The Trust always provided Isaiah with the very best care and the decision to apply to the court to withdraw treatment was only made after careful consideration and after consultation with the family. In Isaiah’s case, the High Court ruled that overwhelming expert and independent medical opinion supported the declaration sought that withdrawing treatment was in his best interests.

“Subsequently, neither the Court of Appeal or the European Court of Human Rights reversed the original decision of the High Court.

“We recognise that this has been an extremely difficult time for Isaiah’s family as well as those involved in his care since birth.

“As Mr Justice MacDonald wrote in his judgement ‘no-one can imagine the emotional pain of the parents’. The thoughts of everyone at the Trust are with them at this time.”