Pippa Knight: Judge rules doctors at Evelina Hospital in London can switch off life support of Strood girl
13:34, 30 April 2021
updated: 20:05, 30 April 2021
A judge has told a mum that doctors will be allowed to switch-off her brain-damaged daughter's life support machine in hospital.
Pippa Knight, who is from Strood, is being treated at Evelina Children's Hospital in London where doctors say she is likely never to recover.
Her mum Paula Parfitt has been fighting a legal battle brought by the NHS which applied to the courts for permission to remove the little girl's breathing machine and allow her to die.
Ms Parfitt wants doctors to allow Pippa, who is in a vegetative state, to return to their home in Kent for a home-care trial.
The 41-year-old says this would mean her daughter could die in the family home if her condition did not improve.
A High Court ruling handed down by Mr Justice Poole in the family division in January said Pippa, who turned six earlier this month, should be allowed to die.
He visited the youngster's bedside in hospital the month before.
After the hearing in January, Ms Parfitt challenged the judgement but failed to win appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court last month and the European Court of Human Rights.
But with all her legal avenues exhausted, the hospital returned to court asking for permission to withdraw Pippa's treatment.
Mr Justice Poole ruled last night that doctors could lawfully switch-off Pippa's life support in hospital unless an agreement could be made between doctors and Pippa's mother about allowing her to die at home.
He previously described the case as "heart-rending" but sided with doctors that it was in Pippa's best interests to stop treating her.
The online hearing in the High Court was told there should be no more delays.
Pippa was born on April 20, 2015, and was a happy and healthy baby until she suffered seizures in December 2016.
She was admitted first to Medway Maritime Hospital and later referred to the Guys and St Thomas's Hospital NHS Trust.
It was there that she was diagnosed with acute necrotising encephalopathy which led to her suffering brain damage.
The little girl has been treated at Evelina hospital for the past two years where she has been kept alive by mechanical ventilation in intensive care since January 2019.
In his ruling in January, the judge said: "Expert neurologists and intensivists agree that she probably feels no pain and experiences no pleasure, that she is not conscious of her environment, and that there is no prospect of improvement in her condition.
"The NHS trust responsible for Pippa’s care and treatment, whose doctors, nurses and therapists have exercised exceptional skill in looking after her, considers that she has been through enough."
