News
EXCLUSIVE: MP calls for brain damaged toddler be transferred to Israel for treatment
UK doctors say Alta Fixsler should be placed in palliative care but her parents want to take her to a hospital in Israel
June 21, 2021 17:47
UK doctors say Alta Fixsler should be placed in palliative care but her parents want to take her to a hospital in Israel
June 21, 2021 17:47Conservative politician Christian Wakeford has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, urging him to allow a two-year-old girl suffering from irreversible brain damage to be treated in Israel.
The MP for Bury South joins Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and the Board of Deputies in calling on Mr Hancock to allow Alta Fixsler to be flown to Jerusalem for treatment.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust decided that there was “no prospect” of Ms Fixler “ever getting better”, and last month a High Court judge ruled with hospital lawyers that the young child should be put into palliative care.
However, Ms Fixsler’s family has requested that she be treated in Israel.
The family’s barrister, Victoria Butler-Cole, said they had “implored the trust to reconsider their position” and allow them to take their daughter to a hospital in Jerusalem.
But Mr Justice MacDonald said that taking Ms Fixsler there “would cause her discomfort for no medical benefit, in circumstances where all parties accept that the treatment options now available for Alta provide no prospect of recovery”.
In his letter, Mr Wakeford said: “I would urge the Trust not to exercise (removing life sustaining ventilation) from Ms Fixsler.
“Rather, they should be supported in taking up and facilitiating the parents’ offer to transfer her to an Israeli institution where her Israeli citizenship rights will be respected…
“We understand the Israeli Minister for Health, Yuli Edelstein, has written to you urging for the transfer of the child to Israel and I urge you to grant his request.
“I would be grateful if you could urgently look into this matter and for a reply which I can forward to Ms Fixsler.”