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Re: R.I.P Alfie Evans 'Dies’ after life support ends
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Originally Posted by Mick
Have you or anyone in your house never disagreed with a medical opinion?
The right to a second, third and fourth opinion does exist you know. Doctors are not always right. It was totally permissible for the parents to seek medical counsel elsewhere and in another country if they felt like it, only they were denied that right because of our nanny state.
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And the family got those opinions, and they all agreed with Alder Hey.
http://www.alderhey.nhs.uk/wp-conten...L-220318-1.pdf
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We have a team at Alder Hey of the very best neurologists who have made every effort to investigate and find a way to treat Alfie. Because Alder Hey is a specialist centre we have good links with other centres and at an early stage we obtained external opinions to try and inform his treatment. Our doctors also invited the family to suggest experts that they thought might assist. The family identified two independent experts and a team of three experts from a hospital in Rome. We cooperated fully with them all and they are unanimous in their agreement that Alfie’s condition is irreversible and untreatable.
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Have you consulted other experts/opinions?
Yes. Alfie’s condition and treatment have been discussed in multi-disciplinary team meetings at Alder Hey which has included specialist neurologists and radiologists. Alfie’s case has also been discussed with various other clinicians at Alder Hey.
At the beginning of last year, Alder Hey approached experts at Manchester Children’s Hospital and later on at Great Ormond Street Hospital. We have also liaised with other specialist centres regarding Alfie’s treatment.
Alfie’s parents have also asked for further opinions from hospitals in Stoke, Rome and Germany. We have welcomed this and arranged for these clinicians to visit and investigate Alfie’s case.
As we indicate above, all the experts are agreed that Alfie’s condition is untreatable and that there is no benefit to him of further investigation. All have agreed with our team at Alder Hey that in the tragic circumstances of Alfie’s case there is sadly no hope of recovery.
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Three clinicians from Rome visited Alfie in September 2017, discussed his case with the team here and reviewed his notes. Following their detailed assessment, they agreed with the conclusions of the Alder Hey team that Alfie’s condition was effectively untreatable. Significantly, they noted that given Alfie’s epilepsy, there was a risk of him suffering further brain injury if he was transferred abroad. They have offered to take him to their hospital but agree there is nothing they can do to help or improve his condition.
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In the High Court case in February, further independent paediatric experts were called in.
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-cont...ey-v-evans.pdf
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In the light of the parents real and entirely understandable concern about the underlying neurological diagnosis, Professor Judith Cross was instructed independently to review the clinical history, the EEG’s and the serial MRI’s. I shall turn in more detail to the MRI scans shortly but it is beyond doubt that they confirm a ‘rapidly progressive destructive brain disease’. Professor Cross is presently the Prince of Wales’ Chair of Childhood Epilepsy at UCL - Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. She is also Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Neurology. She reviewed Alfie at the PICU on 15 June 2017...
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It is important to highlight Professor Cross’s ultimate conclusion clearly. She told me that “even if Alfie is able to sustain respiration in the short term, on discontinuing ventilation, his respiratory effort will not sustain life.” She amplified this by stating that were Alfie to manage for the short term his brain will not recover in any event and he will continue to deteriorate with extremely short life expectancy. The following requires particular emphasis:
“All investigations have been performed that would have demonstrated a remediable or treatable cause and even if at this stage there was something to treat his brain the neurological function will not show any degree of recovery. I appreciate this news will be extremely difficult for the family. I do not feel further therapy is going to have an impact on seizures and even if seizures were reduced this is not going to change [Alfie’s] outcome.”
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