Mom of brain-injured 5-year-old: Docs want to pull plug to save "resources"

Shelina Begum believes that doctors wish to stop the life support of her brain-injured five-year-old daughter to save “resources.”

“I have received various internal information that it all boils down to resources,” she told the hosts of the Good Morning Britain talk show yesterday.

“They are not prepared to give Tafida another six months even though a top independent neurologist has confirmed that Tafida needs time.”

The attorney and mother of two appeared on television yesterday to bring her five-year-old daughter’s case to the British public. Minimally conscious Tafida Raqeeb is in danger of her life because doctors at the National Health Service’s Royal London Hospital believe that it is in her best interest to be removed from life support and left to die.

The little girl’s parents disagree.

“Tafida is not dying. Tafida is not brain-dead,” Begum told the hosts of Good Morning Britain. “She is gradually, gradually improving every day. Tafida is getting stronger.”

The child suffered a ruptured blood vessel in her brain this February and, after a five-hour delay, received life-saving surgery. She is now in a minimally conscious state, and her London-based doctors believe she will never recover.

But Tafida’s parents, Shelina and Mohammad, believe that her condition is improving. They wish to take her to a hospital in Italy, where a medical team for the girl has already been assembled.

The NHS has gone to court in an attempt to prevent this.