Samantha Presland acts in serious medical treatment case in the Court of Appeal

Samantha Presland represented the family of RW, a 77-year-old man suffering from end-stage dementia, in the Court of Appeal.

The family were challenging a High Court judgement by Parker J, which granted an application by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to withdraw all medical treatment from RW. RW was accepted by all parties to lack capacity to make decisions regarding his medical treatment, but to be in a more than minimally conscious state.

Sam was instructed by Rodica Pintea-Austin of Appleman Legal.

The focus of the dispute was whether it was in RW’s best interests, following his planned discharge from hospital into the care of his family, that his hydration and nutrition should continue to be facilitated by a nasogastric tube.

The family maintained that RW would have wished for all forms of medical treatment to be continued, based on statements he had made in the past, whilst he had still been capacitous.

A second issue was the extent to which the proceedings should be anonymised. Before his illness, RW had led a public life including as a campaigner for social causes and by twice running for a seat in Parliament. This caused his family to believe that RW would have wished for his current situation to be publicised.

The Court of Appeal’s judgment is available to read here.

News 8 Oct, 2018