Tafida Raqeeb: Parents win legal fight against doctors who wanted to take severely disabled five-year-old off life support

Family plan to take child to Italy for further treatment

Tafida Raqeeb is five-years-old (PA)

The parents of Tafida Raqeeb have won a landmark High Court battle against doctors who wanted to take the five-year-old off life support.

The child has permanent brain damage, is in a minimally conscious state and has no chance of recovery.

Specialists caring for the child at the Royal London Hospital in east London have said further treatment is futile and that she should be allowed to die.

Tafida’s parents want to move her to to Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa, and have organised funding.

On Thursday, the High Court ruled that they could take their daughter to Italy for further treatment.

Shelina Begum, Tafida’s mother and Mohammed Raqeeb, her father, said doctors there would keep providing life-support treatment until their daughter was diagnosed as brain dead.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the Royal London Hospital, had argued in court that taking the child off life-support was in her best interests.

Lawyers for Barts Health said bosses would consider appealing.

‘We are thrilled with the judgement,” said Mr Raqeeb.

“My clients have asked me to express their profound thanks,” said David Lock QC, the barrister representing the family.

He added that the ruling was an “enormous relief” to the pair and that they “wanted to get on with the transfer.”

Tafida woke her parents early one morning in February 2019, complaining of a headache.

Tafida Raqeeb is five-years-old (PA)

She collapsed shortly afterwards.

Doctors discovered that the blood vessels in the child’s brain were tangled and had ruptured.

The five-year-old has been in a coma ever since.

Tafida’s family is Muslim and of a British-Bangladeshi background.

Ms Begum and Mr Raqeeb told the court that in Islam only God could end a life.

Earlier this year the solicitor and construction consultant raised £400,000 to help cover legal bills, air fares and treatment in Italy.

Additional reporting by agencies