London: Sudiksha Thirumalesh, who died due to a rare mitochondrial disorder, won a posthumous appeal against the UK's National Health Service (NHS) trust to allow her to travel abroad for an experimental trial hoping for prolonged life chances.
The 19-year-old was in a legal battle with the NHS trust against being moved to end-of-life palliative care when she died following a cardiac arrest last year. According to court documents, she wanted to be able to fly out to North America or Canada to explore clinical trials.
The PTI news agency reported that there were disagreements between Sudiksha's family and the medical experts caring for her over what was in the teenager's best interests. The Court of Appeal judgment concluded that Sudiksha had the mental ability to express her wishes related to her treatment.
“The decisions in this case related to Sudiksha, who, notwithstanding her terrible illness, was studying for A levels before contracting Covid which led to her long-term admission to ICU,” read the appeal judgment, presided over by a three-judge bench comprising Justice Eleanor King, Lord Justice Rabinder Singh and Lord Justice Jonathan Baker.
“She was a 19-year-old young woman who was fully conscious, was not suffering from any mental illness or brain damage, and was communicating freely with both her family and the medical team caring for her."
