Heartless

[madasacutsnake]

Father's life support switched off
By Nicolette Casella
November 12, 2004

ISAAC Messiha's family gathered at St George hospital last night to watch staff turn off his life support after an extraordinary court decision ordered the machine must be turned off.


Tough decision ... Dr Therese Jacques had pointed out to the family the importance of having the ICU available to other patients.


The family failed to win an injunction in the New South Wales Supreme Court to stop the hospital moving him from the intensive care unit to palliative care after doctors said his prognosis was "hopeless".

The family branded the court decision as being akin to a death sentence, claiming the hospital put emotional and psychological pressure on them because they wanted to free up hospital beds.

Mr Messiha's children said their father had responded to them with eye movements and they were convinced he would have made a full recovery.

Mr Messiha's son, Magdy, said the intensive care unit insisted there was no hope for his father from the moment he was admitted after a heart attack on October 17.

He claimed the approach of co-director Dr Theresa Jacques contrasted with the opinion of another doctor on the emergency ward that the 75-year-old grandfather from Brighton-le-Sands had a 10 per cent chance of making a full recovery. Nor did they take into consideration that the retired accountant had fully recovered from triple by-pass surgery more than a decade ago and two heart attacks since.

The devout Coptic Orthodox family allege Dr Jacques told them there was "no chance" he would recover and the best thing they could do was to let him go, despite it being against their faith.

Mr Messiha said another ICU director repeatedly told him that his family's desire to keep him alive was cruel and inhumane.

Dr Jacques told them she had had to cancel two operations because of his father's stay.

"I think she was more interested in freeing up hospital beds from day one," he said.

The court heard Dr Jacques and a priest had met with the family to talk about moving their father.

The judgment said: "During the conversation there was a reference made by Dr Jacques to the availability of the unit's resources for other patients who were waiting for treatment.

"This was unfortunate because it led to the possibility that the family believed the decision was in part at least being determined by reference to what should, arguably, have been an irrelevant matter.

"It was insensitive to the feelings of the family members and might have been taken as a form of pressure. to agree with the hospital's decision.

"It was put to Dr Jacques in evidence that her decision as to the future treatment of the patient was based, at least in part, upon the availability of beds and the needs of other patients, but she denied it."

Medical evidence presented in court said it was estimated his brain was without oxygen for 25 minutes before ambulances arrived after his heart attack, leaving him with severe brain damage.

Having been in a "deep coma" at the hospital for three days, Dr Jacques determined he should be removed from the ICU unit and placed under palliative care.

In court, she accepted that withdrawing treatment in the unit would reduce his life expectancy from possible weeks to possible days.

The Messiha family said they firmly believed that their father would recover if he was allowed to stay in ICU.

But medical experts believed he would only live for a few days once he was transferred to palliative care, as was expected to happen last night.

Justice Rod Howie dismissed the family's application, saying the hospital was acting in the patient's best interests.

The Daily Telegraph