Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

News

Baby with brain damage dies after parents run out of legal options

BMJ 2018; 360 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k1140 (Published 09 March 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;360:k1140

Rapid Response:

Re: Baby with brain damage dies after parents run out of legal options

Where do the parents get the money to support these ill judged legal attempts to interfere in the best possible care of their terminally ill children? Yet again we are looking at one of the "downsides" of social media on the internet - a Facebook page for the unfortunate child in question with requests for donations plus membership of other sites for "crowd funding"! Of course the money flows in and ends ultimately in the pockets of lawyers who pursue these sad and hopeless cases. These lawyers who take on such cases should reflect on the ethics of their behaviour - they breed and nourish the breakdown of trust between the parents and the hospitals caring for these children; and they promote a "false hope" that makes the acceptance of the inevitable more difficult and the subsequent bereavement reaction more intense! The courts are not the right place to sort these medical issues out - there must be a better and less expensive way of doing this which does not involve expensive legal fees.

Competing interests: No competing interests

11 March 2018
David J Bihari
Intensive Care Physician
Prince of Wales and Lismore Base Hospitals, NSW, Australia
Young Street, Paddington NSW 2021