Relatives of roofer on ventilator wait for ruling in treatment dispute

Relatives of a roofer who suffered a brain injury after being punched in the head are waiting for a High Court judge to rule in a life-support treatment dispute.

A hospital has asked Mr Justice MacDonald to rule that doctors can lawfully stop treating Andy Casey, 20, of Mitcham, south-west London.

Specialists say Mr Casey’s brain-stem function has died and he is therefore dead, but relatives disagree.

Mr Justice MacDonald considered evidence at a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court, at the Royal Courts of Justice complex in London, on Friday, and will give a ruling on Tuesday.

A lawyer representing St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in Tooting, south London, which has responsibility for Mr Casey’s treatment, asked the judge to rule that it would be lawful to cease “artificial ventilation and care”.

Barrister Abid Mahmood said “brain-stem testing” by two specialists had shown that Mr Casey was dead.

Relatives disagree and say they have seen Mr Casey make movements.

Mr Mahmood told the judge in a written case outline that Mr Casey was involved in a fight in a pub garden on July 9 and had been “punched to the head” and fell to the ground.

He said specialists had diagnosed death on July 16.

The judge, who heard that Mr Casey had remained on a ventilator since being injured, said such cases were “the most serious”.