Girl given life-sustaining treatment after medical experts recommend treatment
27/02/2006
I would recommend Alexander Harris because they provide a very good service.
Stephanie, Cheshire
The parents of Abbie Tinkley have won the right to have life-sustaining treatment given to their daughter after a three month battle with the hospital.
Abbie has had a tracheotomy fitted - a tube inserted into her windpipe to help her breathe, by way of a small incision in her neck.
Abbie, who is nineteen months old, suffers from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) - a rare and incurable muscle-wasting disorder which affects her breathing.
SMA causes weakness and deterioration of the muscles. Abbie has very little movement in her body or limbs - she is mostly paralysed.
Medical ethics experts at Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital recommended treatment in January 2006.
Before the treatment doctors had recommended that the ventilator to help her breathe should be gradually reduced with Abbie being given morphine to reduce the pain.
'Abbie is a changed child. She was in so much pain before because she had a tube inserted through her nose to help her to breathe and couldn't move because it would hurt her,' said Abbie's Dad, Nick, after doctors decided to administer treatment.
'We are all absolutely euphoric but we believe the only reason doctors changed their minds is because we have a good solicitor,' he added.
Abbie's story highlights the debate over right to life treatment.
An intensive twenty-four hour care plan is being arranged so Abbie can return home. She will need three nurses and will still rely on a ventilator to breathe. Specialist expertise is required to ensure she is not receiving either too much or too little oxygen which could be fatal.
Surgeons are also considering fitting a voice box so Abbie can talk and laugh because the tube inserted in her throat obscures any sounds that she tries to make.
"The parents wish for everything possible to be done as long as their child is not suffering and has some quality of life," said Associate Chris Gawne, the Tinkley family's solicitor.
"We are delighted that the hospital has consented to give Abbie life sustaining treatment. The decision is a very positive step forward."
Abbie's Dad Nick and other parents are hoping to set up a help group to campaign for doctors to recognise controversial procedures used in America to help children with SMA.
Back to news