Relatives of a 20-year-old roofer who suffered a brain injury after becoming involved in a fight in a pub garden have failed to persuade a British High Court judge that life-support treatment should continue.
Mr Justice MacDonald ruled that doctors can lawfully stop treating Andy Casey, of Mitcham, south-west London.
Specialists say Mr Casey’s brain-stem function has died and he is therefore dead.
Mr Justice MacDonald, who considered evidence at a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court, in the Royal Courts of Justice complex in London on Friday, said he agreed.
Hospital trust bosses responsible for Mr Casey’s care had asked the judge to rule that treatment could lawfully end.
Relatives wanted treatment to continue, saying they had seen movement and signs of life.
Mr Casey’s sister, Christine Casey, told the judge she did not believe that he was brain-stem dead.
She said after the ruling: “I am so angry.”
A lawyer representing St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is based in Tooting, south London, and has responsibility for Mr Casey’s treatment, asked the judge to rule that it would be lawful to cease artificial ventilation and care.
Barrister Abid Mahmood said brain-stem testing by two specialists had shown that Mr Casey was dead.
“This is a tragic matter whereby the trust seeks a declaration that very sadly Andy’s brain-stem function has died and that thereby he has died,” Mr Mahmood told the judge.
“The trust seeks an order that it is lawful for the trust to cease artificial ventilation and care that Andy currently receives.”
Mr Mahmood told the judge in a written case outline that Mr Casey had been involved in a fight in a pub garden on July 9 and was “punched to the head” and “fell to the ground”.
He said specialists had diagnosed death on July 16.
The judge heard that Mr Casey had remained on a ventilator since being injured.
“Whilst I understand fully the conclusions that the family and friends of Mr Casey have, in their sorrow, drawn from his movements and apparent responses to the ventilator, having regard to the totality of evidence before the court, I am also satisfied that what the family are seeing are in fact well-recognised base reflexes that can survive brain stem death,” said Mr Justice MacDonald in a written ruling.
“Cruelly, the flattering voice of hope convinces those that love Mr Casey that these are signs that Mr Casey is not dead.
“With regret, I am satisfied that the brain stem testing undertaken… demonstrate(s) that he is.”
