Peterborough: Judge rules woman with bleed on brain is dead

A judge has ruled that a woman who suffered a brain haemorrhage is dead after a case at the High Court.

Doctors said the woman, who is in her 40s, died on 10 March and was receiving "futile" life-support treatment at a Peterborough hospital.

But a relative told the court there was a "rush to switch everything off".

Sir Jonathan Cohen declared that she was dead after lawyers representing the hospital's bosses asked for a legal ruling.

He considered evidence from specialists and a member of the woman's family during an online hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London..

The judge ruled that the woman could not be identified in media reports.

The court heard the patient had been in the care of the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which is based in Peterborough and runs a number of hospitals in the area.

Barrister Emma Sutton, counsel for the NHS trust, said the woman went into hospital in early March complaining of "severe migraine-type headaches".

Ms Sutton said a scan revealed an "aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage", which is a type of stroke caused by bleeding on the brain that is often the result of a burst blood vessel.

"It was determined that there were no neurosurgical options available and that clinical treatment was futile," she said in a written case outline.

She said the clinical decision that the woman had died was made after brain stem death testing at 11:45 GMT on 10 March.

The barrister said specialists at other hospitals also concluded the woman was dead.

She told the judge the patient was receiving "futile" life-support treatment.

Ms Sutton said the woman's family had "indicated their disagreement with the cessation of treatment".

One family member told the judge: "This rush to switch everything off is awful."

She said she was "not really trusting" what doctors were saying.

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