The evolution of Marwa’s disease, a one-year-old child hospitalized in Marseille whose parents refuse to stop treatment, will lead to a major handicap, estimated 3 experts.
This is difficult news for the parents of Marwa, a one-year-old girl whose parents are fighting to keep her cared for. According to Agence France Presse (AFP), the three experts appointed by the justice refuse to “settle” the “ethical dilemma” on the question of the continuation of the treatment in this small patient received in 2016 at the hospital of the Timone (Marseille) for a devastating infection, followed by severe neurological and cardiac disorders. In addition, the experts underline the “severe and definitive neurological damage” from which the baby suffers.
THEThe course of Marwa’s disease “will lead to major disability”, they write. Marwa “is conscious, but suffering from a major motor deficit” and “irreversible”, report these doctors to the administrative court of Marseille. They also confirm “severe and definitive neurological damage”.
Parents accept disability
In the same opinion as the “extremely negative clinical prognosis” of the doctors at the Timone hospital, they believe that Marwa will be “incapable of carrying out everyday activities and of being able to move around, even in an electric wheelchair”. She will remain, according to them, “dependent on respiratory support”, artificial nutrition and “intensive nursing”. They predict that the evolution of this case will lead to “a major handicap in a bedridden child”.
The experts also met with Marwa’s parents, but without convincing them. The couple say in fact “to accept the handicap of their child with full knowledge of the facts and to accept that she can die in a natural way and not following the end of the substitute treatments”.
Doctors face a dilemma
To convince public opinion, Marwa’s father also posted on Facebook a video of her daughter showing her moving slightly and winking. “My little girl is better, she is regaining her strength,” he hopes. But, for the experts, these are “reflex movements, not voluntary” and the medical examination “confirms the lack of real improvement in Marwa’s situation”.
According to them, “the parents’ desire to keep Marwa alive at all costs” and their opposition to stopping respiratory assistance “introduces an ethical debate” with “the healthcare team’s idea of the interest of the child ”. However “the experts do not think they have to settle this ethical dilemma”, they write, specifying that in this type of situation the doctors “do not proceed” to a stop of the care “against the opinion of the parents”.
As a reminder, the administrative court of Marseille ordered the hospital of La Timone on November 15 to continue the care of little Marwa.
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