Ward of court baby well after operation

A six-month-old baby, whose life was saved through open-heart surgery when the High Court overruled parental objections to blood…

A six-month-old baby, whose life was saved through open-heart surgery when the High Court overruled parental objections to blood transfusions, has made a good recovery.

Mr Justice Herbert yesterday discharged a ward of court order under which doctors were authorised to provide medical treatment to save the baby's life.

Mr Justice Herbert was told the baby, who had a hole in her heart and who cannot be named for legal reasons, had made a good recovery from surgery in August and he vacated all injunctions restraining travel so that the baby and her Jehovah's Witness mother could join the rest of their family in England.

Earlier Mr Justice Abbott had authorised surgeons at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin to proceed with the transfusion of blood and blood products during surgery.

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Ms Ann Power, counsel for the hospital, said the hospital now had no objection to the baby being taken to join her father in England where arrangements had been made with Great Ormonde Street hospital in London to monitor her.

The mother yesterday undertook to the court that she would bring her baby to the hospital.