A Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ms KL & Anor [2023] EWCOP 59

Judgment concerning KL's best interests and her medical treatment for her acute myeloid leukaemia.

KL, a 45 year old woman of British and Indonesian heritage, has a lifelong history of mild to moderate learning disabilities and Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder. She had been detained in hospital H under s3 of the MHA. In October 2023, after complaining of a lump in her back she was diagnosed with  acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive cancer of the white blood cells, and on 1 November she was admitted to the applicant hospital where she has been subject to restraint and limited s17 leave to visit her mother. The medical evidence was that the leukaemia would be fatal to KL if untreated and that three courses of chemotherapy were required.

John McKendrick KC, sitting as a Tier 3 Judge, agreed KL lacked capacity and that the treatment was in her best interests, partly because there was a clear, ascertainable wish on her part not to die. He also agreed that inpatient admission until March was necessary to keep KL safe from infection after the chemotherapy and authorised the deprivation of liberty until the next hearing. At [73] he distinguishes the regimes governing her deprivation for different periods during her stay.

Read the judgment on the National Archives