Rescue of Polish patient in Plymouth Hospital

Letter to Editor of the Daily Telegraph

Dear Editor, You may be aware that there is currently a high level request from the Polish President’s office and from the Polish Foreign Ministry about the possibility of prolonging and saving the life of a Polish citizen, with initials RS, who is currently lying in what Plymouth doctors describe as a near vegetative state. In early November RS had a heart attack with subsequent brain hypoxia at his home in Southern England and his brain was deprived of oxygen for at least 45 minutes. Since then, he has been in a coma in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and more than a month later specialists have concluded that his condition would never significantly improve and have consequently denied him life-sustaining treatment, including artificial ventilation, nutrition and fluids. A spokesperson for the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has acknowledged that the “main role of the hospital is to provide better care to patients, care for their safety and well-being” but maintains that RS is not likely to recover and that it has s complied with the wishes of the patient’s wife and children in denying the patient further sustenance on the grounds that RS had once expressed the wish not to be a “burden” to his family. This decision has been supported by a court in London and the Court of Appeal has refused the patient’s mother and family members in Poland permission to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. They maintain that as a practising Catholic he would not wish to have his life ended artificially. Despite this treatment the patient remains stubbornly alive. The Polish government, acting on behalf of the family in Poland and aware of the sense of outrage in the Polish media about this prolonged deliberate neglect of a Polish citizen, has already issued him with a diplomatic passport and is prepared to provide transport directly from the hospital in Plymouth to the Budzik Clinic in Olsztyn, Poland, which specializes in the resuscitation of patients in seemingly endless coma. A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and the local bishop in Plymouth, Mark O’Toole, have already appealed to Matt Hancock, unsuccessfully so far, stating that “providing food and water to very sick patients, even by assisted means, is a basic level of care” and not a form of medical treatment, so that the hospital is required to provide it while the patient lives. The bishops urged support for the offer of the Polish government to take responsibility for his future care in Poland. Some 60,000 signatories in the UK have also signed a petition to that effect. I would not normally wish to question decisions made by doctors in the UK as they seek desperate solutions in overcrowded hospitals with limited bedspace amidst the chaos of the covid pandemic, but I feel that if there is a chance of saving this man’s life in a way that required no further burden on the National Health Service, then the British Prime Minister should listen to the direct appeal of President Andrzej Duda and authorize the release of this patient. While there is life there is always hope. I am sure that his wife and children would then be more than grateful that a glimmer of that hope appears that could save their loved one’s quality of life. This decision should be made instantly in order to be effective. Hopefully publicity by your newspaper would play an important part in convincing the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary that this action should be taken now. Perhaps then an opportunity may come where a grateful Polish nation could react with similar generosity to any urgent appeal of a UK citizen in their care. Yours faithfully, Wiktor Moszczynski Dear Editor, You may be aware that there is currently a high level request from the Polish President’s office and from the Polish Foreign Ministry about the possibility of prolonging and saving the life of a Polish citizen, with initials RS, who is currently lying in what Plymouth doctors describe as a near vegetative state. In early November RS had a heart attack with subsequent brain hypoxia at his home in Southern England and his brain was deprived of oxygen for at least 45 minutes. Since then, he has been in a coma in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and more than a month later specialists have concluded that his condition would never significantly improve and have consequently denied him life-sustaining treatment, including artificial ventilation, nutrition and fluids. A spokesperson for the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has acknowledged that the “main role of the hospital is to provide better care to patients, care for their safety and well-being” but maintains that RS is not likely to recover and that it has s complied with the wishes of the patient’s wife and children in denying the patient further sustenance on the grounds that RS had once expressed the wish not to be a “burden” to his family. This decision has been supported by a court in London and the Court of Appeal has refused the patient’s mother and family members in Poland permission to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. They maintain that as a practising Catholic he would not wish to have his life ended artificially. Despite this treatment the patient remains stubbornly alive. The Polish government, acting on behalf of the family in Poland and aware of the sense of outrage in the Polish media about this prolonged deliberate neglect of a Polish citizen, has already issued him with a diplomatic passport and is prepared to provide transport directly from the hospital in Plymouth to the Budzik Clinic in Olsztyn, Poland, which specializes in the resuscitation of patients in seemingly endless coma. A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and the local bishop in Plymouth, Mark O’Toole, have already appealed to Matt Hancock, unsuccessfully so far, stating that “providing food and water to very sick patients, even by assisted means, is a basic level of care” and not a form of medical treatment, so that the hospital is required to provide it while the patient lives. The bishops urged support for the offer of the Polish government to take responsibility for his future care in Poland. Some 60,000 signatories in the UK have also signed a petition to that effect. I would not normally wish to question decisions made by doctors in the UK as they seek desperate solutions in overcrowded hospitals with limited bedspace amidst the chaos of the covid pandemic, but I feel that if there is a chance of saving this man’s life in a way that required no further burden on the National Health Service, then the British Prime Minister should listen to the direct appeal of President Andrzej Duda and authorize the release of this patient. While there is life there is always hope. I am sure that his wife and children would then be more than grateful that a glimmer of that hope appears that could save their loved one’s quality of life. This decision should be made instantly in order to be effective. Hopefully publicity by your newspaper would play an important part in convincing the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary that this action should be taken now. Perhaps then an opportunity may come where a grateful Polish nation could react with similar generosity to any urgent appeal of a UK citizen in their care. Yours faithfully, Wiktor Moszczynski