Alta’s grieving dad: ‘She was our world’ - The Jewish Chronicle

A devastated Charedi father who lost a protracted legal battle to keep his seriously ill toddler alive said she “was our whole world”.

Alta Fixsler, 2, died at a hospice on Monday with her parents by her side after the withdrawal of her life sustaining treatment.

“I don’t know even how to explain how I am feeling,” her father told BBC News. “She fought for her life for three hours after the life support was turned off.”

A funeral was held for Alta on Wednesday morning and she was laid to rest outside Jerusalem, a family spokesman told the JC.

The Board of Deputies extended its condolences, with president Marie van der Zyl wishing her parents “a long life and that they should know no more sorrow in the years ahead”.

US Senator Chuck Schumer, who helped secure a US visa so the toddler could continue treatment abroad, extended his support for the family and spoke against the outcome of their protracted legal fight. The senator told Hamodia this week that he regretted that “our multiple, and legally and morally, well-grounded pleas were unheeded by the British authorities”.

Alta had been under the care of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust since birth where she was born with a catastrophic brain injury, unable to eat or breathe without help. The strictly Orthodox family argued that ending her life-sustaining treatment would go against their faith, but doctors said she had no chance of recovery and was unable to experience pleasure but did feel pain.

The Supreme Court refused in July to overturn an earlier ruling allowing her transfer into palliative care and the European Court of Human Rights rejected another appeal in August. The family sought to have the removal of her life support take place at their home instead of hospital or a hospice, a legal battle they lost earlier this month. Their legal team suffered another defeat this week when the High Court denied their application for oxygen therapy to be administered after the removal of Alta’s life support in a bid to alleviate any distress caused.

The NHS trust argued that oxygen therapy risked prolonging Alta’s life, and the court held that it was in her best interests for there to be no more interference with the dying process.

The case drew wide media coverage over recent months, with former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin calling on Prince Charles to intervene. Ms Toli Onon, Joint Group Medical Director for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We would like to offer our deepest sympathies to Alta’s family. Our staff worked very hard to care for Alta, and our thoughts continue to be with her family at this extremely sad time.”