 A teenager who died trying to fight her doctors' attempts to withdraw life support can now be named. Sudiksha Thirumalesh, who had a rare mitochondrial disorder, was involved in a court battle with an unnamed NHS trust over whether she should be moved onto palliative care. The Court of Protection heard Ms Thirumalesh – who could 'communicate reasonably well' with her doctors – wanted to travel to North America for a potential clinical trial, described as 'experimental'. Judges were told the A-level student was a 'fighter', and that she had told a psychiatrist: 'This is my wish. I want to die trying to live. We have to try everything.' However, the London court previously heard there was a 'fundamental disagreement' between the family and the trust over the teenager's care and what was in her best interests. Lawyers for the trust said Ms Thirumalesh, who was known as ST during the legal battle, was 'actively dying' and was suffering severe respiratory episodes. 'It's like drowning. She is able to sense what is happening,' Vikram Sachdeva KC told the court in July. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ms Thirumalesh died on September 12 following a respiratory and cardiac arrest. On Friday, her family and their lawyers returned to the Court of Protection to make a successful bid to allow her and her family to be named publicly in relation to the case. Mr Justice Peel told the court that he wanted to 'express my profound sympathies' to the late teenager's family. 'I am very sorry for your loss in extremely difficult and trying circumstances,' he told her parents. Bruno Quintavalle, representing Ms Thirumalesh's parents Thirumalesh Chellamal Hemachandran and Revathi Malesh Thirumalesh, said 'very far-reaching' restrictions had been put in place that meant 'the parents){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A teenager who died trying to fight her doctors’ attempts to withdraw life support can now be named.
Sudiksha Thirumalesh, who had a rare mitochondrial disorder, was involved in a court battle with an unnamed NHS trust over whether she should be moved onto palliative care.
The Court of Protection heard Ms Thirumalesh – who could ‘communicate reasonably well’ with her doctors – wanted to travel to North America for a potential clinical trial, described as ‘experimental’.
Judges were told the A-level student was a ‘fighter’, and that she had told a psychiatrist: ‘This is my wish. I want to die trying to live. We have to try everything.’