Doctors told to defy parents and save child’s life

Doctors had to ask for a court’s help to give a six-year-old girl a life-saving blood transfusion. Her parents were refusing to give their permission to the procedure on religious grounds. The family are Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The girl was taken to a hospital in the far eastern city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky after having a severe head trauma.

She needed a blood transfusion, but her parents, who are members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious sect, refused to allow such an operation as they consider blood sacred and their beliefs strictly prohibit any manipulations with it.

Doctors had to ask for a court ruling which would allow them to treat the girl without her legal guardians’ consent. In the meantime they did their best to keep the patient alive.

It took judges more then three hour on Thursday to dismiss all the objections and give the hospital green light, reports Interfax news agency.

The medical team, who started the transfusion right after the court passed its decision, said the girl’s condition at the moment was critical. Now she is slowly recovering.

Local prosecutors say they are launching a case against the girl’s parents over putting her life at risk.