Thu Sep 14, 2023 – 7:38 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — A conscious 19-year-old denied life-saving treatment by a judge who considered her “delusional” for wanting to fight for her life has died. Her grieving family is still forced to adhere to strict reporting restrictions and the girl’s identity remains unknown.
The young woman, known as “ST” due to court-enforced gag orders that prevent individuals involved in the case from being identified, died Tuesday after suffering cardiac arrest. Although she suffered her entire life from mitochondrial depletion syndrome — a rare genetic condition in which the energy-producing mitochondria are severely deficient in the body’s cells — the girl’s health had significantly deteriorated after contracting COVID-19 in August 2022.
For the last year of her life, ST was in the intensive care unit on a ventilator and dialysis, which a judge ruled could be removed by the hospital, citing unsubstantiated claims that the girl was unable to make her own medical decisions.
Despite the reality that the case surrounding ST’s end-of-life treatment has undoubtedly concluded after her tragic death, the reporting restrictions that allow courts to keep all information in cases related to the 2005 Mental Capacity Act
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