Parents of a three-month-old who is on life support wants a judge to give the baby boy a chance to live.
Doctors believe that little Midrar Ali will never recover from a brain injury and they are asking a court to sanction removing life support. But his parents believe Ali is improving and they want to give him a chance to live.
Planning to fight the application by Manchester's St Mary's Hospital, his father Karwan Ali, a bio-medical scientist, told Mail Online that everything was fine until the baby's birth.
But complications during delivery meant that baby's brain was starved of oxygen.
"Everything was totally fine until his birth. The umbilical cord came out first," the 35-year-old told the publication.
“When Midrar came out, they resuscitated him with chest compressions and drugs and they heard his heart beat after eight minutes. He was taken to intensive care.
“Midrar was in a coma, but after 43 days we noticed his eye beginning to open.
“We have videos of him moving his finger. And he responds when we place our hand on his chest. He tries to turn his head and stretch his chest. He’s trying – he just needs more time.”
Ali and his 28-year-old wife have an elder son, aged two.
He said: “They need to give Midrar a chance. But the hospital has closed all the doors on us, they say there is no hope, his brain is dead. They say his movements are just reflex, not brain activity.”
The Family Court in Preston, Lancashire, on Tuesday will hold a preliminary hearing in the case, which has echoes of five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb's case.
Raqeeb's parents recently won the right to take her to Italy for treatment. She was on life support at the Royal London Hospital since suffering a traumatic brain injury in February.
Kulsuma Aktergetty images