Thursday, November 18, 2004

Doctors 1 Babies 0

Our dead babies are the envy of the world.

"She described how, when doctors refused her pleas for Luke to be given an adrenaline injection and handed him to her so that he could die in her arms , she ransacked medical cabinets in Luke's cubicle to find oxygen.

Doctors also refused to administer this, she said.Though her son had stopped breathing, she gave him oxygen in a final bid to save him. "But it was no use, my precious little boy died in my arms," Mrs Winston-Jones said last night. "I was begging and pleading with them to save my boy, but they said no."


"I got down on my bended knees and begged and begged for Luke's life," Mrs Winston-Jones said. "I was weeping and saying: 'For the love of God, my baby is dying. You can save him, you know you can. There is nothing in the court ruling that prevents you giving him adrenaline. Save my little boy.' But the doctor wouldn't do it.

"He just stood there, cold as ice. He kept saying: 'I am not giving him adrenaline.' That was all he would say. I told him he was breaking the law, but he said he wasn't."

When Mrs Winston-Jones accused the doctor of doing nothing for her dying child and wagged her finger at him, security officers were called. "The doctor said to me: 'We are going to stop the heart massage now and Luke will die. I think he should be in your arms."

As the doctors left, Mrs Winston-Jones cuddled her dying son. "I kept telling him I loved him and I was sorry that I could not make them save him."



Yesterday, the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust insisted that its doctors had done all they could.



Mrs Winston-Jones's battle over her son's right to life mirrors a similar case in Portsmouth, in which Carol Glass fought to save her severely handicapped son, David, 12, a patient at the city's St Mary's Hospital.

In 1998, when doctors administered diamorphine to David, who has advanced lung disease, and refused to attempt resuscitation, Mrs Glass removed the drip herself and revived him. Six years later, David is still alive.


Surely Portsmouth NHS Trust won't allow another case like that of David Glass, where the child tragically lived despite the doctors' best efforts.

So onwards and upwards ! Charlotte Wyatt's still alive !



No comments: