Tafida Raqeeb: Parents of five-year-old who doctors say should be allowed to die fight to take her out of NHS hospital

Family want to take child to Italy where clinicians say she may be revived from six-month coma

Tafida Raqeeb collapsed at her home in east London in February after suffering a ruptured blood vessel (PA)

A couple hoping to take their seriously ill daughter to Italy for treatment after UK doctors said she should be allowed to die have pleaded for help from the public.

Mohammed Raqeeb and Shelina Begum say five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb can still pull through, despite being in a coma since a blood vessel ruptured in her brain in February.

But they need the permission of a High Court judge before they can transfer the child from the Royal London Hospital to Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa.

Doctors there say that, with the right treatment, they could bring her around within a few months.

Now, Mr Raqeeb, 45 and Ms Begum, 39, have launched a fundraising campaign to cover their legal bills, air fares and ongoing treatment once in Italy. They say they need £400,000.

In an emotional plea written on a GoFundMe page, the pair say Tafida can open and shut her eyes, move some limbs and reacts to pain: “She is not dying,” they write, “she is not brain dead and nor does she have any underlying medical or genetic conditions.”

The couple, from Newham, east London, add: “At present, she shows gradual but very encouraging signs of recovery.

“A team in the Royal London Hospital, where she is being treated, has decided, however, that it would be in her ‘best interests’ that her life is ended. We, her parents, strongly disagree.

“We desperately require funds to meet our legal costs, which will run into tens of thousands of pounds. Should we succeed, we will also need to find an additional £20,000 to pay for Tafida to be airlifted to Italy and about £100,000 to cover the costs of on-going life-sustaining treatment.”

Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the Royal London Hospital, said in a previous statement: “This is a very sad case, for which we are in close contact with the family to offer support.

“Our expert clinicians caring for Tafida Raqeeb have determined, in discussion with additional independent medical experts elsewhere in London, that further invasive medical treatment is futile.

“As such we are ensuring that we keep the family involved and uphold Tafida’s best interests, recommending withdrawal of life sustaining treatment and instigating palliative care.”

The case bears some similarities to that of both Charlie Gard, who died in July 2017 aged 11 months, and Alfie Evans, who passed away in April last year shortly before his second birthday.

In both those cases, the High Court ruled the children, who both had genetic brain disorders, should be kept in the country and given palliative care only – against their parents’ wishes.

By Tuesday afternoon, more than 200 donors had contributed more than £15,000 to little Tafida’s fund, with one anonymous donor pledging £10,000.