Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust v TM [2021] EWCOP 8

The applicant Trust was seeking to perform a bilateral below-knee amputation upon the P, without which his treating clinicians believe he will develop sepsis and suffer life-threatening renal and cardiac failure very soon. The court granted the application.

The P, who had been living on the streets for some time, was suffering from various medical conditions, one of which was necrosis of both legs due to severe frostbite. The treating clinicians said that the only way to save his life was to perform a bilateral below-knee amputation. The P strongly objected to the proposed surgery and treatment, and said he believed that his condition would improve without it.

The court agreed that the surgery should go ahead. On the question of capacity, the court agreed that the P lacks the ability to understand and weigh the information necessary to decide whether to consent to the amputation. The court also said that an instinctive enthusiasm for the natural word, his pride in and love for his daughter and his spontaneous expression of his wish to see her, indicated a man who would choose to live.

Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii