Latest news with #CourtofProtection
Leader Live
17-05-2025
- General
- Leader Live
Concerns over the future of adult autistic daughter
When my autistic daughter reaches 18 will I still be able to make decisions for her? Q: I am a single mum with an autistic daughter aged 17. She is physically able but is non-verbal and will never achieve the mental capacity of an adult. I have taken care of her on my own and fought for her rights all her life. I am now worried what will happen when she reaches 18. Will I still be able to have a say in what happens to her? And what will happen about her financial affairs and wellbeing if something happens to me? A: Once an autistic child in England and Wales turns 18 they become an adult and legally your parental responsibility ends, meaning you no longer have automatic rights to make decisions about their care, education or finances. Until it is formally established through assessments that as an adult your daughter lacks mental capacity to care for herself and make decisions, it will however be deemed that she can make her own decisions about all aspects of her life. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, mental capacity is 'decision specific', So your daughter would need to be assessed in respect of every aspect of her life where she requires help and support in decision-making. In her case it seems likely a Deputy would need to be appointed, which could be you. A Deputy is someone given authority by the Court of Protection to make decisions for a person who lacks capacity. It would ensure your daughter receives the continuing care and provision she needs. You can apply for a Deputyship Order for your daughter's Property and Financial Affairs and/or her Health & Personal Welfare. More than one Deputy can be appointed, to act jointly or severally. There are many issues you will need to consider when seeking to obtain a Deputyship Order, including Education, Medical Services, Income and Finances, Living Arrangements, Safety, Decision-Making and Vocational & Other Services. This may seem overwhelming, but a solicitor can help with all of it. • This question has been answered by Ulia Choudhry, a partner with GHP Legal. If you would like to speak to someone about this or any other legal matter, please visit our website and use the contact us form, or call us on: Wrexham 01978 291456, Llangollen 01978 860313, Oswestry 01691 659194.
Daily Record
02-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Legal expert shares crucial steps to take after dementia diagnosis to ensure protections are in place
An estimated one million people across the UK are living with dementia. There are currently estimated to be around one million people with dementia across the UK, but more than a third of people with the condition do not have a diagnosis, according to the Dementia UK charity. The number is expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040. Dementia is an umbrella term for a range of progressive conditions that affect the brain. Each type of dementia stops a person's brain cells (neurones) working properly in specific areas, affecting their ability to remember, think and speak. Dementia can affect a person at any age but it's more common in people over the age of 65. However, John Roberts, Partner and Director of Austin Lafferty Solicitors, is urging people affected by dementia to familiarise themselves with a Power of Attorney as it could be crucial later on. Understanding a Power of Attorney A Power of Attorney allows a trusted person to manage someone's financial and/or health affairs if they lose mental capacity. Having a Power of Attorney in place acts as a legal safeguard, similar to insurance, helping avoid serious problems with financial and care decisions in the future. A diagnosis of dementia does not automatically mean a person cannot grant a Power of Attorney. Someone with early-stage dementia can still create a Power of Attorney if they understand what it is, what it does, and who they are appointing. However, it is important to act quickly, as dementia is a progressive condition, and any delays could result in the person losing the capacity to grant a Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney can cover either financial matters (bank accounts, bills, property) or health and welfare decisions (medical treatment, care preferences). In either case, the individual must show sufficient understanding at the time of signing. Solicitors carry out an initial assessment to check mental capacity, including asking basic questions and explaining the Power of Attorney process. If there are doubts about capacity, a medical assessment by a doctor or specialist may be required before proceeding. If dementia has advanced too far, a Power of Attorney cannot be granted, and family members must apply for a court order instead: In England and Wales, this is a Deputyship Order from the Court of Protection In Scotland, it is a Guardianship Order through the Sheriff Court Setting up a Power of Attorney usually takes a few weeks, whereas obtaining a court order can take several months and involve complex legal and medical assessments. To ensure fairness, solicitors meet privately with the individual (without family members) to confirm the decision is voluntary and free from coercion. Solicitors will check family structures and the individual's choice of attorney to prevent disputes or suspicions of undue influence. John Roberts, Partner and Director of Austin Lafferty Solicitors, said: "Setting up a Power of Attorney is crucial for individuals diagnosed with dementia, allowing a trusted person to manage their finances or health decisions if needed. 'Early-stage dementia does not automatically prevent someone from creating a Power of Attorney, but acting quickly is essential as the disease progresses. If capacity is lost, families must pursue more complex and time-consuming court orders instead. 'Solicitors safeguard the process by ensuring the individual understands their decision and acts without coercion. A Power of Attorney provides legal protection, helping to avoid stress, delays and disputes in the future." The simple message from the legal expert is:'Do not delay. Seek legal advice early after a dementia diagnosis to ensure the right protections are in place.'
BBC News
22-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Mencap urges medics to improve care of patients with disabilities
Greater awareness is needed in how to treat people with disabilities after a man died in a hospital following complications from kidney dialysis, a charity Tooke, 30, from Norwich, died in August after a line from a dialysis machine became detached, causing an air embolism that triggered a fatal brain Tooke's mother, Camilla Tooke, believed her son had been subjected to discrimination at the hospital based on his disability and questioned whether doctors had done all they could to save his life. Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of Mencap, said: "All healthcare professionals should receive training to ensure unbiased decision making." The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, which treated Mr Tooke, said: "We are committed to provide the best care for people with a learning disability and autistic people and to make adjustments when necessary to access the care they need." Mr Tooke had Williams Syndrome - a condition affecting development - and autism. He was non-verbal and had learning was later diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and a Court of Protection order led to him being put on the inquest into Mr Tooke's death, Ms Tooke said following her son's embolism, "Dr Fletcher [the head intensive care consultant] said 'well, what quality of life does he have anyway?'"I knew the question of DNR [do not resuscitate] was coming, so I said: 'You can't ask me to make that decision,' to which he replied, "you won't make that decision. I will."At the inquest Dr Simon Fletcher apologised to Ms Tooke, claiming she had misunderstood his comments and that he had not acted in a discriminatory manner. Dr Fletcher told the inquest he had intended the question to ascertain Mr Tooke's quality of life prior to the embolism, in order to assess whether treatment might have left him in a permanent vegetative said: "He'd suffered a catastrophic brain injury and one of the difficulties of critical care is there are two difficult aspects; the decision of when people are going to benefit... and second is when enough's enough."Critical care is not without real difficulties for the patient physically and psychologically so I always like to understand what the quality of life for the patient was before that and I was asking that only to establish, not as a judgemental issue." Mr Sparkes, from Mencap, added: "Jordan's family battled tirelessly to ensure their 30-year-old son could access treatment."All healthcare professionals should receive training to ensure unbiased decision making and ensure all NHS providers are making reasonable adjustments so people with a learning disability can access adequate care."No family should ever have to ask if the NHS is doing everything that they can to save their son." Rachael Cocker, the chief nurse at the hospital, said: "Our deepest condolences are with Jordan's family following their loss."Our clinicians and learning disabilities team at NNUH worked closely with Jordan and his family to make adjustments to enable him to receive dialysis with the aim of him receiving a kidney transplant in the future."Our teams were devastated by Jordan's death and are committed to learning from what happened."The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on learning disability and autism has been embedded across our trust to ensure all staff have the skills to provide appropriately adjusted care for people with a learning disability and autistic people to reduce health inequalities." Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Telegraph
20-03-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
NHS refuses to force-feed anorexic woman at ‘imminent' risk of death
The NHS has refused to force-feed a 25-year-old anorexic woman who is at 'imminent' risk of death, The Telegraph can reveal. 'Patricia', as she is called under a court order, weighs 19kg with a body mass index (BMI) of 7.3 – and is so malnourished that she has not walked for two years. In 2023, a judge ruled that Patricia had 'autonomy' to refuse nasogastric (NG) tube-feeding. Her family then applied to the Court of Protection on March 1 this year for an order that would allow doctors to force-feed her without her consent. Oliver Lewis, a barrister representing the family pro bono, told the court: 'It is far too early to let this 25-year-old woman die when medical treatment is available that could prevent her death.' But on Wednesday, the NHS bodies overseeing her care told the court they could not offer NG feeding without her consent. A judge therefore ruled that, for now, 'the only viable path forward' is for Patricia to 'remain on a voluntary treatment plan'. 'Patricia in a Catch-22 position' Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust (NNUH), where she is being monitored, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), which provides mental health care, argued that force-feeding Patricia would be futile. This stance goes against NHS guidelines stating anorexia is not a terminal illness and should be treated. NNUH told Mrs Justice Arbuthnot that it would not consider initiating tube feeding against Patricia's will unless a specialist eating disorder unit agreed to admit her afterwards. The Official Solicitor pointed out that this put Patricia in an 'invidious' position, 'a Catch-22', as no unit will commit to this before NNUH stabilises her. The two trusts can now be named after The Telegraph successfully challenged a reporting restriction. NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB), which commissions Patricia's care, can also be identified. With no alternative, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot was left having to choose between what the Official Solicitor described as 'the least worst of awful options': do nothing, or continue voluntary treatment, which has so far not worked. The judge sympathised with NNUH's position that tube-feeding 'shouldn't really start until there is a whole exit strategy', but acknowledged the family's point that the voluntary care she was left to recommend will likely see Patricia 'continuing to decline'. The family sought a court order under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) to compel Patricia to receive life-saving eating disorder treatment, including NG feeding. This would have overturned a 2023 Court of Protection ruling by Mr Justice Moor, who upheld her 'autonomy' to refuse treatment after CPFT clinicians deemed her anorexia 'untreatable'. Mr Justice Moor, who has since retired from the High Court bench, said at the time that she was so frail that she would likely die within days. 'Continuation of status quo will be fatal' But Patricia, who has always insisted she wants to live, defied expectations. She has survived 18 months despite getting just eight days of eating disorder treatment in that time. On Thursday, Patricia's aunt condemned NNUH, CPFT, and the ICB for not agreeing to provide the life-saving intervention under compulsion, calling it 'unconscionable'. The outcome of Wednesday's hearing, she warned, was 'a continuation of the status quo that will be fatal'. Katie Gollop KC, representing NNUH, told the court that her client had been put in a 'very difficult' position, and that it would be 'unethical' to re-feed Patricia until a specialist eating disorder unit was available to move her after. She said NNUH had 'believed that [Patricia] would not be alive in March 2025', but stressed that 'nobody wants Patricia to die'. 'None of the NHS bodies are motivated by bringing about her death,' Ms Gollop added. Sophia Roper KC, CPFT's counsel, said that while the 'tempting' position is 'to do whatever it takes to keep her alive', it did not follow that this was the right thing to do. On Thursday, Patricia's aunt told The Telegraph her niece was 'on the brink of death' and urged the NHS to reverse its stance and force-feed Patrica, even if there is no plan for what happens afterwards. She said: 'All NNUH needs to do is offer, today, to tube-feed her against her will for a few weeks until she is stable enough for transfer to a specialist unit. 'We believe a specialist unit would accept her once she has gained just enough weight to pull her back from the brink of death. If NNUH continues to refuse to urgently begin this life-saving intervention, will another hospital step forward?' She added that the judge's suggestion that the trust might still intervene 'if she is actively dying' made no sense. 'Patricia is actively dying right now. She is starving to death. Yet NNUH still refuses to offer the one thing that could save her – the ability for doctors to NG feed her against her will,' she said. 'Patricia has goals and dreams' Mr Lewis argued that in no previous eating disorder case has the Court of Protection ever 'permitted death in a case where P – here, [Patricia] – so strongly does not want to die'. 'Patricia has dreams and aspirations and goals: she wants to walk again, to go back to studying, and she wants to go on holiday to Bhutan with her aunt,' he said. The family's written submissions include increasingly panicked WhatsApp messages from Patricia in recent weeks, pleading for help. In a message to her aunt on February 28, she wrote: 'I don't want to die… I want to walk up mountains. I want to swim in the sea. I want cuddles and kisses. I want to play and have fun. 'I'm so so scared. I'm terrified. Please help me more. WE [sic] haven't got much time to play with. I'll never walk if we don't sort things now.'
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Man died after air bubble entered vein in dialysis
A disabled man died after an air bubble got into a vein when his dialysis line detached from the machine. Norfolk Coroner's Court heard Jordan Tooke, 29, from Norwich, was in good health and spirits when he arrived for his routine treatment at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on 28 August. But about an hour into the treatment for acute kidney disease, his mother noticed blood. None of the medical team that treated him could explain how the central venous catheter became uncoupled, but an embolism triggered a sequence that caused him to die on 31 August. Area coroner Johanna Thompson recorded a conclusion of accident. Mr Tooke had Williams Syndrome - a condition affecting development - and autism. He was non-verbal and had learning disabilities. He was born with one small kidney and the other was found to contain a cyst, but as a small child he had normal liver function. He was later diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and a Court of Protection order led to him being put on dialysis. Norfolk Coroner's Court heard how an hour into a routine dialysis appointment the line into Mr Tooke's vein had detached, causing him to bleed and an air bubble to enter his vein. Although his post-mortem examination showed the cause of death as bronchopneumonia, the court heard he had suffered a "cardiac standstill" as a result of the embolism, which led to a catastrophic brain injury. In a witness statement, Jordan's mother Camilla Tooke said her son - who had been sedated - fell asleep during the dialysis process. She said: "As I looked at him, I noticed that there was blood and shouted 'blood' to Sarah [Jordan's main carer] and I immediately applied pressure." The emergency alarm was activated, and staff arrived and reconnected the line but were unsure how the connection had become undone. Later in the day, he underwent a CT scan, which found no evidence of air in his veins, but intensive care consultant Dr Simon Fletcher said this could have been absorbed into his body. Mrs Tooke added: "We were left alone with Jordan and he didn't seem to be getting any better. I was concerned that no-one had explained the consequences of the disconnection. "Later in the day, Jordan's right eye became closed and I thought he might have had a stroke and his leg had become unresponsive, and I said something wasn't right. "The nursing staff couldn't understand as his vital signs were OK, so it seemed to be no issue. "I believe the nursing staff did their best for Jordan, but it was obvious what was happening was beyond their expertise and the doctors didn't seem concerned." In evidence, matron Sarah Trudgill said her team was devastated by Jordan's death, but there was no damage or explanation as to why the line had become detached. Nurse Hannah Filby, a deputy sister on Langley Ward renal unit, said with 13 years' experience she could not understand or explain how the line became detached, saying she had never seen it happen before. "I could not see how that could have come off on its own," she said. "Jordan had never, in my experience, fiddled with his line. If it was out of sight, it was out of mind, which is why we covered it." Dr Ravi Varma, a primary renal consultant, said: "There were signs that [an embolism] had happened. The drop in blood pressure, the mottling of the skin, the change in his behaviour and the concerns a stroke was occurring." He also said there was a possibility food from the stomach entered Mr Tooke's lungs, causing inflammation leading to bronchopneumonia. Dr Varma added: "He was well before dialysis, but there became a detachment [of the line] and he became unwell thereafter." Coroner Johanna Thompson said the primary cause of death was brain damage caused by an air embolism, but that no evidence could explain how the line had become disconnected, adding: "This was an accidental event." She said she would not file a Prevention of Future Deaths report because the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was working on amending its procedures to treat patients with an air embolism, as a result of the death. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Mum overjoyed at 'life and death' court win for son Dialysis failures put 15 patients in hospital Norfolk Coroner's Court
