Isaiah Haastrup: Father fears he will not see brain-damaged baby alive again after losing appeal over life support

Father urges hospital not to ‘rush to end his life’ as he remains banned from hospital

Isaiah Haastrup’s mother, Takesha Thomas, and father, Lanre Haastrup, outside the High Court in London (PA)

The father of a brain-damaged baby fears he will never see his son alive again after being barred from the hospital caring for him.

Doctors could withdraw life support from Isaiah Haastrup after judges at the Court of Appeal denied a challenge by Lanre Haastrup and Takesha Thomas.

The High Court previously said the one-year-old boy could be allowed to die against his parents’ wishes after doctors said further treatment was “futile, burdensome and not in his best interests”.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Haastrup said it was a “sad day”.

“No one else will stand up for him so we have to,” the father added. “We are fighting for our son, who was negligently harmed.”

Mr Haastrup hit out at King’s College Hospital in London for banning him from seeing his son after he allegedly lost his temper and made threats towards staff.

“I think the hospital should be ashamed of themselves with the way they’ve treated us,” he said.

“How can you ban me from seeing my son despite having a judgement for him to die?”

Ms Thomas insisted her son was “responsive” but specialists have said further intensive care treatment is futile and won court permission to give only palliative care.

Isaiah’s parents are working to delay the withdrawal of life support and are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

“We see Isaiah on a daily basis, we know what our son does and the doctors have got it wrong,” Mr Haastrup said. “They shouldn’t rush to end his life.”

But he is worried that if those efforts proved fruitless he might not be with Isaiah for the last hours of the little boy’s life.

“Of course I am worried about that,” the father added. “I’m worried that I might not see Isaiah again.

“But I can’t do anything about that. It’s a matter for the hospital if they want to lift the ban.”

On Thursday, he lost a separate legal battle to overturn King’s College Hospital’s ban on him entering the premises.

Mr Justice Mostyn said Mr Haastrup had not demonstrated any legal error by hospital officials or shown that they had acted irrationally, and the ban is already being reviewed.

Mr Justice MacDonald analysed Isaiah’s case at a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London in January, ruling in favour of doctors but saying they should continue treating the baby until appeal judges had considered the case.

Isaiah has been on life support since being born with brain damage thought to have been caused by oxygen deprivation on 18 February 2017, and remains in a paediatric intensive care unit.

King’s College Hospital accepts his condition was partly contributed to by a delay giving his mother an emergency caesarean, but said the main reason was a rare event where her womb ruptured during labour.

The case follows controversy over Charlie Gard, another severely ill baby whose life-support treatment was switched off following a high-profile court battle between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The parents of a brain-damaged toddler, Alfie Evans, are currently mounting an appeal after a High Court ruling that doctors could allow him to die at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.