Christmas Present: Clinical law updates

Robert Wheeler – paediatric surgeon, Southampton

One of the joys of our website and its membership is uncovering hidden talents. Normally, the combination of the words “Surgery” and the “Law” should never be in the same sentence together. However, that may be all about to change.

Robert Wheeler, our resident legal expert, and Anindo Bannerjee, both from the Dept. of Clinical Law in Southampton have given us access and uploaded some truly excellent podcasts recently on a gallimaufry (look it up!) of legal conundrums tailored to all clinical areas, and not just within the paediatric arena. You, too, will now be able to distinguish your Bolams from your Bolithos.

For example, one of the latest podcasts concerns the thorny subject of blood transfusions and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Did you know that up to 2023, there were only four cases of hospitals applying to the courts because a capable child refused consent for blood transfusion perioperatively. All were Jehovah’s Witnesses aged 16 or 17 years old. In three of the cases the courts directed that they would not permit them to make this decision, and blood should be provided if necessary. The fourth’s intervention was regarded as palliative and denial of transfusion supported. Recently, however, this was tested concerning a pyeloplasty operation, deemed clinically necessary in a 17-year-old from Plymouth. The Judge supported the young man’s plea to undergo the surgery without any possibility of transfusion whatever the consequences.