Brain-damaged Tafida Raqeeb, 5, flies to Italy with her family after beating ‘death sentence’ in court battle
A BRAIN-DAMAGED girl was carefully loaded onto a jet with her mum and four doctors as she was flown to Italy for treatment.
Tafida Raqeeb won a remarkable High Court battle against NHS bosses who wanted to switch off her life-support.
The five-year-old was awake and her eyes were open as she was wheeled from an ambulance driven from the Royal London hospital, east London.
Mum Shelina Begum, 38, watched on as her daughter was carried up the steps to a Learjet in a private hangar at Biggin Hill Airport, in south east London.
She took a seat behind her daughter for the three-hour flight as medics monitored Tafida as she breathed through a ventilator.
Shelina of Plaistow, east London, said: “She’s really stable. She’s awake now. But it’s been a tough morning.”
She’s really stable. She’s awake now. But it’s been a tough morning.
Shelina Begum
The jet taking Tafida and her mum to the Gaslini Children’s Hospita, in Genoa, Italy, took off at 4.30pm.
Husband Mohammed Raqeeb, 45, had flown ahead to meet Shelina and their daughter in Italy.
He said: “This journey to Italy has given us hope. Hope that Tafida will have the best life that we can give her.
Tafida suffered catastrophic brain injures at home in February.She has been on life-support in intensive a the Royal London Hospital unable to see, walk or breathe without a ventilator.
Doctors recommended they switch off her life-support claiming it was in her “best interests”.
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Shelina, a solicitor, took Barts Health NHS Trust to the High Court to overrule their decision stopping the family taking their daughter for more treatment in Italy.
Justice Alastair MacDonald earlier this month ruled Tafida could be taken out of the country.
Tafida is believed to be the first child to be allowed by a court to travel abroad for treatment after winning a court battle with the NHS.