Calls for mediation between doctors and parents after sick little boy dies

When tiny, 23-month-old Alfie Evans died last week, the thought uppermost in many minds was, there has to be a better way! A way, that is, to resolve cases where parents and doctors are in dispute.

Alfie suffered from a degenerative disease which caused a catastrophic degradation of his brain tissue. After more than a year in a semi-vegetative state, scans showed that almost all of his brain had been destroyed.

Doctors at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool concluded that further treatment would be futile and proposed switching off the boy’s ventilation machine. Alfie’s parents, Tom and Kate Evans, objected and fought his case through a series of court battles.

LIFE SUPPORT

They argued that their son was feeling no pain and they wanted him moved to an Italian hospital for treatment.

In each case, judgement was given against the parents and Alfie’s life support was turned off after a high court judge sided with the doctors. Five days later, the boy died.

The course of the dispute was ugly at times as Tom Evans spoke angrily against the hospital and court decisions and hundreds of Alfie’s supporters gathered in a hostile mob outside the hospital. Even the Pope became involved when Tom appealed to him to intervene.

In a calmer atmosphere after Alfie’s death, there were calls for legislation which would give parents more authority in the event of medical disputes involving their children.

Further, Prof Dominic Wilkinson, a leading expert in medical ethics, suggested the introduction of mediation panels to prevent entrenched disagreements between parents and the medics.

FEEL DEEPLY

“There is a real need to resolve disagreements between parents and doctors,” he said. “There are a number of possibilities, in particular formal mediation involving somebody independent of the hospital and the family who can sit down with both parties and help find common ground.”

A spokesman for the Liverpool  hospital said, “All of us feel deeply for Alfie, Kate and Tom and his whole family and our thoughts are with them.”

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When I wrote here recently about the world’s plastic pollution crisis, I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that Kenya had introduced the world’s toughest plastic bag ban.

An article in The Guardian newspaper here reported that eight months after the law was introduced, Kenya’s streets are cleaner, waterways less obstructed, fewer plastic bags fly in the wind and there has been a decrease in plastic getting entangled in the nets of fishermen at the Coast and Lake Victoria.

COFFEE CUPS

The report said the law had its down side, however, particularly for retailers and manufacturers. The need for non-plastic packaging has hurt exporters of food and flower products in particular, as well as producers of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Nonetheless, when I see people toss coffee cups and sweet papers on the ground here when there is a rubbish bin just feet away, I consider that a Kenya-style fine of £31,000 would be just fine and dandy!

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Disturbed by things going bump in the night, pub landlord Adrian Marley challenged ghost-hunters to investigate his tavern, The Schooner, in Gateshead. Suzanne Gill jumped at the chance.

A self-proclaimed “paranormal practitioner” or medium, Suzanne claims she has detected spectres and unexplained noises in other pubs, including taps turning on, objects moving of their own accord and a murdered child walking through a wall.

SLID OFF

Mr Marley issued his invitation after noticing that glasses often slid off table tops in The Schooner and noises could be heard without apparent cause.

Suzanne will spend a night in the pub accompanied by a radio reporter at a date to be arranged. Watch this space.

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Every week in Scotland, there are 697 hospital admissions linked to alcohol, 22 people die directly or indirectly because of drink and 80 per cent of all assault victims taken to hospital had been drinking.

In a move to cut consumption and save lives, the government in Edinburgh has cracked down on cheap booze, setting a minimum price according to the strength of the drink.

ANGRY LETTER

A two-litre bottle of strong cider, which could be bought for as little as £2.50, will now cost at least £7.50. Some vodkas and whiskies were selling at £10 for a 70cl bottle; the changes mean that such vodkas will cost no less than £13 and whisky £14.

Scotland is the first country in the world to introduce minimum pricing.

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True story: A guy went to rob a bank in York, Pennsylvania, USA. The first teller he approached fainted and the next two clerks had no cash in their drawers. He stormed out and wrote an angry letter to the bank.

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