The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v YD & Ors (Refusal of Withdrawal of Treatment) [2025] EWCOP 31 (T3)

Application by Trust to withdraw nutrition for a patient who had been in a PDOC since October 2024 following a bleed on the brain and who had long upheld complementary medicines such as Reiki. 

YD had been admitted in October 2024 and moved to a rehabilitation ward in January 2025. He was described as "a voracious reader with many wider interests, in particular long held beliefs and a deep interest in natural remedies and the spiritual world." He had two partners (who did not know of each other before YD was hospitalised) who both tended to him daily and who gave evidence to the court that he was showing signs and powers of recovery, partly through the use of a medium and Reiki healer. The evidence from the Trust was broadly that, while acknowledging YD had some responses, he had no hope of a functional recovery.   

In this judgment, Theis J, the Vice President, provides a thorough review of the witness evidence, the submissions and the legal framework before concluding at [86-87] that YD's best interests were to continue to receive CANH as the burdens do not outweigh the benefits and as she places greater weight on YD's past and present wishes, feelings, beliefs and values than medical team do, going on to state:

"I accept the picture of YD painted by the evidence of JG, MB and NT. I do not regard the continuance of CANH in this case as futile where it sustains life. Having looked at the wider evidential picture I do not accept the narrow view taken by Dr Hanrahan as it did not pay sufficient regard to the evidence of YD's beliefs and values and wishes and feelings. Whilst it is recognised that any awareness on the part of YD, if present, is extremely limited and there may be little or no further improvement and a trajectory of general deterioration it is far from clear that in the circumstances YD is in he would regard his continued existence as a burden. There is a strong presumption in favour of preserving life which, in my judgment, having carefully evaluated the evidence in this unusual case, the Trust has not discharged."

Read the judgment on Bailii