The authority will study the case of Marwa, a baby plunged into a comas whose fate opposes the family to the hospital of Timone.
What will happen to little Marwa? The fate of this baby suffering from an irreversible motor deficit and plunged into an artificial coma, was debated this Thursday at the Council of State. The Public Assistance-Hospitals of Marseille (AP-HM) has indeed seized the jurisdiction to challenge a court decision ordering it to continue treatment, as requested by the parents.
The meeting was held behind closed doors, said the State Council, which indicates that this decision was taken at the request of the parents of the child and of the hospital. The hearing took place before a summary judge, which allows for an emergency procedure.
Five months of conflict
On February 8, the Marseille administrative court ordered the AP-HM to continue treatment for Marwa, as requested by her parents. However, for the doctors of the Timone in Marseilles, it is about an “unreasonable obstinacy”.
16-month-old Marwa was admitted to Timone hospital on September 25, 2016 with a devastating virus. On November 4, the medical team decided to stop the therapeutic treatment and to disconnect the respiratory system keeping the child alive. The parents were opposed to it and had taken legal action.
The little girl “is conscious but suffering from a major and irreversible motor deficit”, then judged the doctors in a report to the administrative court. They also confirmed “severe and definitive neurological damage”. During the legal proceedings, the commissioned experts shared this diagnosis, while refusing to settle the question of continuing treatment.
This is the second time that the Council of State has been seized of a case related to the end of life. In June 2014, he ruled on the fate of Vincent Lambert, a quadriplegic in a vegetative state, and ruled legal “the medical decision to end treatment”. The fate of this patient, kept on artificial feeding, continues to tear his family apart.
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