DOCTORS made an urgent plea to the Supreme Court yesterday to help save the life of a Jehovah's Witness girl dying of leukaemia. Justice Richard White ordered the girl, 4, receive treatment, including a blood transfusion to which her parents had objected on religious grounds. Paediatric oncologist Dr Petra Ritchie, right, said without treatment the girl "will die . . . I would say in weeks". Dr Ritchie said that the girl, who was diagnosed with cancer of the blood and bone marrow on Monday, had a 90 per cent chance of survival if she received treatment immediately. Doctors had this week advised she needed a potentially life-saving blood transfusion but her parents objected on religious grounds. The parents' opposition prompted the hospital to petition the court saying that, without treatment, the girl would die in a matter of weeks.
A lawyer who advised doctors that they must let a 22-year-old Jehovah's Witness die even though he wanted to live has spoken of the agonising scenes before the young man's death.