Yahoo Finance Alta Fixsler, toddler at centre of parents’ legal battle, dies in hospice
A two-year-old girl whose parents fought a legal battle over her medical treatment has died after being taken off life support.
Alta Fixsler, who suffered a serious brain injury at birth, died at a Manchester hospice with her parents at her bedside.
Her father said Alta “was our whole world”. He told the BBC: “She passed away in a hospice on Monday. I don’t know even how to explain how I am feeling. She fought for her life for three hours after the life support was turned off.”
Her parents went to court earlier this year after Manchester University NHS foundation trust, which had cared for Alta since birth, said it was in her best interest to remove life support and allow her to die. She was in constant pain, had no “conscious awareness” and no prospect of recovery, doctors said.
But her parents, who are ultra-Orthodox Jews, argued that the withdrawal of treatment was against their religious beliefs. They asked the courts’ permission to take their daughter to the US or Israel after hospitals there offered to care for Alta.
In August, the appeal court upheld an earlier high court ruling to allow doctors to withdraw treatment. The European court of human rights also rejected an appeal by her parents, and agreed with the UK courts’ decisions to place Alta on palliative care.
The protracted court battle had been “very painful”, her father said. “The trust would not let us take her home.”
A funeral took place on Monday evening, and Alta is to be buried in a cemetery outside Jerusalem.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies, said: “We mourn the tragic loss of Alta Fixsler. We wish her parents Chayim Aruchim – a long life – and that they should know no more sorrow in the years ahead.”
Toli Onon, the joint group medical director for Manchester University NHS foundation trust, said: “We would like to offer our deepest sympathies and condolences to Alta’s family. Our staff worked very hard to care for Alta, and our thoughts continue to be with her family at this extremely sad time.”
