Tafida Raqeeb: Brain-damaged girl arrives in Italy
Hospital bosses in the UK had tried to block attempts to move Tafida Raqeeb to the hospital in Genoa. …
Image copyright Press Association A brain-damaged girl has arrived in Italy after her parents won a High Court battle to take her abroad for treatment.
Five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb had been on life support at the Royal London Hospital since suffering a traumatic brain injury in February.
Health bosses had tried to block attempts to take her to the Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa.
Tafida was transferred by air ambulance overnight on Tuesday.
Her parents, Mohammed Raqeeb and Shelina Begum, were met outside the hospital in an official welcome organised by CITIZENGO Italy, a community organisation which paid for Tafida’s transfer.
UK specialists had argued any further treatment of Tafida, who suffered a brain haemorrhage, would be futile.
Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital in Whitechapel, had said ending Tafida’s life support was in her best interests.
Tafida’s parents, both practising Muslims, argued Islamic law said only God could take the decision to end her life.
The High Court ruled on 3 October there was no justification to stop the child being taken abroad.
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