Latest news with #StThomasHospital
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Mother of jailed British activist at risk of ‘sudden death' from hunger strike, doctors warn
The mother of jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah is at risk of "sudden death" due to her ongoing hunger strike, doctors have warned, as her blood sugar levels dropped so low they can no longer be detected. Laila Soueif, 69, was hospitalised on Friday after resuming a full hunger strike, which she first started in September last year. Ms Soueif has been on hunger strike for 244 days and has lost 36kg – over 40 per cent of her bodyweight – to campaign for Alaa's release from prison in Egypt, where the writer and human rights defender has been held for over a decade in total. He was most recently detained for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt. On Friday, doctors at St Thomas' Hospital in London said her blood sugar level had fallen to such a dangerously low level that it is undetectable by standard medical tests. They also reported her ketone levels, which indicate blood acidity, had risen so high they too could not be measured by hospital equipment. They warned she is now at risk of "sudden death" and irreversible damage to critical organs, including the heart, brain and kidneys. 'Your low blood sugar remains an unaddressed medical emergency and I am anxious that just a slight further reduction could result in rapid loss of consciousness, and even death,' one of the attending doctors wrote. Outside St Thomas' Hospital, Laila's daughter Sanaa said it was a 'miracle' her mother survived the night. 'Bottom line is we're losing her… there is no time. Keir Starmer needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday. Now. Right now.' A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: 'We are concerned to hear of Laila's hospitalisation. We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare. We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El-Fattah's release and continue to press this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.' Last Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer once again spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and 'pressed for the urgent release of British national Alaa Abd El-Fattah so that he can be reunited with his family.' The family says Alaa Abd El-Fattah is also on his 92nd day of hunger strike, consuming only herbal tea, black coffee, and rehydration salts while imprisoned in Wadi El-Natrun in Egypt. He began the hunger strike after his mother's last hospitalisation in February. Alaa is a prominent British-Egyptian human rights defender and one of the most recognized faces of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. He has spent in total over a decade in prison amid a growing crackdown on civil liberties and freedom of expression in Egypt. He is among thousands of individuals who remain arbitrarily detained without legal basis in Egypt, according to Amnesty International.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Mother of jailed British-Egyptian activist hospitalised after 242 days on hunger strike
The mother of the imprisoned British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has has been admitted to hospital after spending more than 240 days on hunger strike. Laila Soueif's family said she had been admitted to St Thomas' hospital in London on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels, but continues to refuse medical intervention that would provide her with calories. Soueif has been on hunger strike for 242 days in protest against the imprisonment of her son, who has been in jail in Egypt since September 2019. Last week, Souief told the Guardian that she weighed 49kg and had lost about 42% of her body weight since beginning the protest. In December 2021, Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison for 'spreading false news' and should have been released last year. His mother has not eaten any food since 29 September 2024, the date her son's prison sentence was due to end. She had been surviving only on herbal tea, black coffee, rehydration salts and 300-calorie liquid supplements. She resumed her full hunger strike on 20 May, saying: 'Nothing has changed, nothing is happening.' UN investigators have declared Abd El-Fattah's imprisonment in breach of international law. Earlier this year, Keir Starmer promised he would 'do everything I can' to ensure his release. In a statement on Friday, Soueif's family said she had received glucagon treatment, which induces the liver to break down stored fat to obtain glucose, but continued to refuse treatment that would provide her with calories. She was previously admitted to hospital in February, with doctors saying she was at 'high risk of sudden death'. In March, she agreed to move to a partial hunger strike following a call between Starmer and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Abd El-Fattah has been on his own hunger strike for 90 days since his mother's admission to hospital in February. Explaining her decision to resume a full hunger strike, last week Soueif said: 'I have never seen [the UK government] act as if the situation was urgent, except when I was hospitalised. For me and for my family the situation is urgent. We have used up more days than we ever thought we had. We need Alaa released now. We need Alaa with us now. We need Alaa reunited with his son, Khaled, now.'
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Exposed: NHS manager accused of Rushdie-style fatwa death threat over 'insult to Mohammed'
An Islamist extremist working at one of London 's most famous hospitals has been suspended after being accused of issuing a fatwa-style death threat for blasphemy. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that NHS employee Omar Abdallah Mansuur, 39 – an influential imam – faces claims that he decreed a fellow Muslim should get the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Mohammed. His broadcast was made to tens of thousands of followers and is thought to be the first time a cleric in Britain has made such a threat. The terrified victim, now in hiding in Europe, has been warned by police that it is too dangerous for him to visit the UK. 'It is a living nightmare,' he said last night. 'My life is at risk and I am constantly looking over my shoulder.' But last night, Mansuur denied issuing a death threat, saying he merely stated the Islamic punishment for blasphemy. In some of his inflammatory diatribes, Mansuur appears on video from inside St Thomas' Hospital – directly across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament – where he works in procurement. One sequence shows him going into the hospital via an underground entrance and walking along a corridor before sitting down in an office. Staff describe bespectacled Mansuur, a British national of Somali origin who lives in North London with his wife and children, as unassuming and polite. But his social media profiles tell a different story. Mansuur, who works in procurement at St Thomas' Hospital – directly across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament – denied issuing a death threat, saying he merely stated the Islamic punishment for blasphemy Using TikTok, Facebook and X, he reaches millions of followers with his hate-filled videos and live broadcasts. On Friday, after the MoS passed on its evidence, the hospital said Mansuur had been suspended pending an investigation. Yair Cohen, a lawyer representing the victim, said: 'I am calling for immediate and decisive action to protect my client. 'Police forces seem able to swiftly arrest people for far less serious social media activity.' The National Secular Society said: 'It's appalling that here in the UK, Islamists are calling for the death of supposed blasphemers or those who leave Islam. The police and counter-extremism authorities must take this threat seriously, and people who incite murder against those who they see as offending their religion must face justice.' In one broadcast, Mansuur says of the 32-year-old moderate imam, whom he accuses of making offensive remarks about the Prophet: 'When he repents, he will be put to death in the manner Muslims are killed. If he refuses to repent he will be caught, killed, then thrown in a hole like a dog.' The death threat victim vehemently denies insulting Islam and insists comments he made on social media were doctored. The Metropolitan Police said it had referred his complaint to police in the country in which he is hiding. The target of the 'fatwa' told the Met in a statement that he fears he will suffer the same fate as French teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded near his school in Paris in 2020 after hate campaigners accused him of showing a cartoon of the Prophet to students. Hadi Matar was sentence to 25 years in prison on Friday for the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie. Pictured here at Chautauqua County Courthouse for his sentencing in Mayville, New York on May 16, 2025 He said: 'Mr Mansuur…issued a fatwa against me and that my punishment for insulting the Prophet is death…My life is at risk and I fear for my safety.' In other videos, Mansuur defends child marriages, saying girls as young as 11 can be married off by their parents without their consent as long as they are virgins. The death threat follows a disturbing rise in anti-blasphemy incidents in the UK. A Government report last year explained violence was promoted by 'the availability of jihadist propaganda online'. Experts say Islamists are being radicalised and then taking it upon themselves to resurrect the 'crime' of blasphemy in Britain. The report was commissioned by the Government's counter-extremism tsar following flashpoints including the RE teacher forced into hiding after he showed pupils a cartoon of Mohammed at a school in Batley, West Yorkshire. Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini imposed a fatwa on British author Salman Rushdie in 1989 for his novel The Satanic Verses. Mr Rushdie, 77, lived in hiding for almost a decade and was blinded in one eye when he was attacked by an extremist in New York in 2022. His attacker was last week jailed for 25 years. Mansuur broadcasts and posts videos in his native Somali language, which appears to have shielded him from the sort of attention authorities have paid to other firebrand preachers. He first accused the moderate imam – whom we are not naming for his safety – of blasphemy in 2022 when he was preaching on an app called Clubhouse. At the time he had several hundred followers. By the time the video re-surfaced on social media in March it had garnered thousands of views. Mansuur later took part in a live TikTok broadcast with other preachers, and accused the moderate imam of blasphemy. As a photo of the preacher appeared on screen, Mansuur said: 'His sentence is death, even if the person repents, the repentance cannot stop the will be executed for the insult.' The moderate imam complained to local police and was given security advice. He said: 'I was told to avoid mosques and areas with large groups of people. My life is in danger. I am always scared. His followers would take his video as a fatwa.' In his complaint to the Met, he said: 'Mr Mansuur... issued a 'fatwa' against me that my punishment for insulting the Prophet is death. Threats of death, violence, intimidation and harassment against me have increased and intensified in the last month which has left me living in fear, feeling distressed, worried and anxious.' In another live broadcast on TikTok in June 2022, Mansuur says the sharia punishment of death for blasphemy must be carried out on a Somali woman he accused of insulting the Prophet. Other speakers, however, urged restraint as she had repented. The following month, Mansuur issued a video, again on TikTok, against an unidentified man, whom he accused of committing blasphemy. In the shocking video, the caption in Somali reads: 'This filthy man insulted our Beloved [Prophet]. He is an infidel, and his blood is halal.' Mansuur then says: 'Action is required, bravery is required... Each of you should bring forth your capability.' Last night, campaigners accused Mansuur of inciting murder, but he told The Mail on Sunday his speeches had been 'taken out of context,' adding he has never advocated violence. Of his videos on the moderate imam he said: 'I was talking about one who insults the Prophet Mohammed. I was giving the opinion of scholars. I didn't say, go and do this. This is b*******. 'I haven't done anything against the law...I was only telling that we will take him to court. Anyone can take your words and twist it. My words are not against the law.' Asked why he accused others of blasphemy and said their punishment was death, Mansuur said he was just repeating Islamic law. The National Secular Society said: 'We're extremely concerned by the apparent lack of action by authorities on this case. Extremists who promote Islamic penalties for supposed blasphemy pose a serious threat to people's lives.' The NHS trust that runs St Thomas' said: 'We can confirm Mr Mansuur has been removed from duties pending an investigation into allegations about his behaviour.'
Telegraph
10-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
I fell from a first-floor window and smashed my skull
Stepping into fabric designer Vanessa Arbuthnott's Cotswolds house feels like a sun-drenched saunter through a very English meadow. Colours flit from soft sky blue to warm buttercup yellow… fresh air, fresh earth, fresh life. It's a tonic for the eyes and the soul, and a true testament to Arbuthnott's eye for delicate shapes and harmonious tones. She has mastered them all. But on New Year's Day in 2017, her world came crashing down when a simple accident in the barn next to the house could have killed her. Such is her positive outlook on life and her passion for work that it is a subject she rarely talks about. We sit down on a late-spring day, looking through french windows onto a central courtyard, where long lazy grasses and dainty wildflowers are beginning to wake. Through the centre runs a lavender-lined path, new shoots eagerly bursting into life. 'The inspiration for my work is right there,' she says with a contented smile. Arbuthnott's parents were both amateur artists, but her own early career took a totally different path, starting with a five-year degree in nursing at London's South Bank Polytechnic. She was working at St Thomas's Hospital when she met her husband, Nicholas, an architect who had always dreamt of creating a big family home in the country. Shortly after marrying, they moved to Amberley in the Cotswolds, where their eldest son, George, soon arrived. By the time they finally found the home they were looking for, it had to accommodate four children under the age of six. 'From the start, Nicholas knew it would be difficult to get planning permission to build a new house in open countryside,' she says. 'So, in 1993, we bought a derelict cow byre. Traditionally, this was a U-shaped, single-storey structure used as a fold to keep cows during winter. This one had originally been part of an estate owned by a banker and was made of Cotswold stone, with a proper tiled roof and a courtyard in the middle. It also came with a barn and four acres.' Arbuthnott continues, 'For the first six months, Nicholas dealt with the foundations, roof and drainage. Although there was no central heating or electricity, it was wind and water-tight, so we moved in. We had run out of money, but we had hurricane lamps and candles. It was also late spring, so the worst of the cold weather was over.' With a growing family, Arbuthnott realised it would be difficult to return to nursing, but she still needed an income, so she embarked on a weekly art class in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where she learnt about printmaking, and started to design her own fabrics. She then began to use the fabrics to furnish rooms in the house, which led to word-of-mouth commissions. In the space of a few years, her kitchen-table hobby had turned into a flourishing business with a store in Cirencester. Just 15 years after her first collection, Arbuthnott had established herself as one of the country's leading fabric designers – something she had never dreamt of. There was also the added excitement of her first grandchild, courtesy of George and his wife, Clio. Then, on the first day of 2017, everything ground to a gruesome halt. 'We had a wonderful time welcoming in the new year, and the following day I was walking across the courtyard, when I heard a bird flapping its wings in the barn,' Arbuthnott recalls. 'Nicholas had converted it into a two-storey artist's studio, so I went upstairs, and as I got closer to the bird, it flew out of the french windows. Somehow, I lost my footing and fell through them head first, hitting the concrete path below.' Arbuthnott lay there for several agonising minutes before slowly and painfully crawling to where Nicholas or her daughter Flora might see her. It was Flora who came rushing out, shocked by the blood pouring from her mother's face and hands. While Nicholas called 999, Flora wrapped her in blankets. Despite the freezing temperature, they were afraid to move her inside in case she had broken her back or neck. An hour later, an ambulance arrived. Arbuthnott downplays what happened that day, but such a fall could have left her paralysed, or dead. 'To be honest, I was OK as soon as I was in the ambulance,' she recalls matter-of-factly. 'I think the shock and worry was harder for the family, who came rushing to the hospital. Multiple scans showed that I'd smashed my skull and jaw, smashed my hands and had a spleen bleed. My eyes were so swollen I couldn't open them and I had a haemorrhage above one of my eyebrows. Nicholas was scared I might have a larger bleed on the brain.' For a few moments, this quiet corner of the Cotswolds suddenly felt like the opening of an Agatha Christie novel. 'One of the doctors asked me if I meant to jump out,' she says, raising her eyebrows, 'or if I thought I'd been pushed. I guess they have to rule these things out. 'Another doctor had to deal with my jaw, which was no longer connected to my skull. Maxillofacial surgeons had to wire it up by making slits under each eye and sliding metal plates down on each side. I'd also damaged quite a lot of nerve endings on my face, permanently losing my sense of smell. My wrists, too, had to be wired up with metal plates. I felt quite robotic.' After several weeks in hospital, and with both arms in plaster for two months, Arbuthnott returned home, unable to do anything; she couldn't even eat without someone there to feed her. When the plaster finally came off her arms, she had another three months of physio, relearning to do the most basic of things. Understandably, the family reflected on the accident, and how it had happened. The french windows on the upper floor had always been a welcome feature to the barn, because they brought in so much light; but as no one had considered that something so awful could happen, there was no safety bar or balcony. As soon as Nicholas got home, he screwed them shut. 'We weren't going to leave it to chance again,' says Arbuthnott. 'Luckily, there was no inquiry; no one got arrested.' At that point, she also realised she would not be able to work for some time, but with a deadline looming for the next catalogue, the whole family sat down to see how they could help. Fortunately, her two daughters, Flora and Rose, are both artists. 'Nicholas can draw pretty much anything. Flora did product design at Glasgow School of Art and was already teaching screen-printing with me, while Rose had studied fine art and was a professional artist. They had also worked on previous catalogues, so I knew they'd come up with beautiful sketches. We then translated those into workable patterns and chose colour palettes together. I called it The Artists' Collection and it came out on time that autumn.' Arbuthnott's optimism was back in charge. 'Whichever door or window I looked out of, there was always something to catch my eye. Something to lift my spirits, to make me feel better… a flower about to bud, trees blowing in the wind, a falling leaf.' Reflecting on the fall, she says now: 'I had to go back to the studio, when the doors had been screwed closed, and work through everything to try to understand how it could have possibly happened. But I now believe in the true meaning of an accident: where you can't predict events. I don't have flashbacks, and I'm not traumatised by it, but for a while afterwards I did lose my confidence in any judgement, particularly in my ability to cross a road. I think it was much worse for the family when they saw me in such a state.' Not only did the natural world aid her recovery; it continues to inspire her work, from 2020's Botanical Collection and 2022's Forest Collection to last year's Wild Garden Collection. This year, she celebrates 25 years in the business. On that, she says: 'I didn't set out to be ambitious, you know. I just found something I loved doing and followed my heart.'
