NSW: Judge said patient would be dead but for court intervention

AAP General News (Australia)
04-11-2000
NSW: Judge said patient would be dead but for court intervention

A judge says a brain-damaged patient would be dead if a court had not stepped in to
ensure a hospital continued his treatment.

Justice BARRY O'KEEFE was told the family of the 37-year-old man say he now has some
body movement, reacts to verbal suggestions and his eyes follow relatives visiting him.

He was being given an update by the family's solicitor, DAVID MILLS, on the condition
of JOHN THOMPSON, who was admitted to Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on March 2
after a drug overdose.

Justice O'KEEFE said in the New South Wales Supreme Court he is concerned but for the
intervention of the court, this man would now be dead.

ANNETTE NORTHBRIDGE urgently applied to the court on March 12 to stop the hospital
withdrawing treatment from her brother, the youngest of six children whose father died
in February.

The hospital told Justice O'KEEFE that Mr THOMPSON had been diagnosed as having irreversible
brain damage, and his family had been told that continuing to treat him would be medically
futile.

AAP RTV mss/maur/wz/rp

KEYWORD: NORTHBRIDGE (SYDNEY)

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