A family has won a court battle to keep their newlywed daughter on life support as they plan to fly her back to China after she was left in a coma following a car accident.
Xinyi Zhang, also known as Juno, suffered “catastrophic” brain injuries following the accident in Sydney on September 24.
The young newlywed is currently in a coma on life support in the intensive care unit of St Vincent’s Hospital in the city centre.
Dr. Jacob Fairhall, a renowned neurosurgeon at the hospital, believes Ms. Zhang will not recover from her injuries.
However, her parents launched a legal battle in the New South Wales Supreme Court to prevent her from being taken off life support and doctors from resuscitating her if necessary.
Despite the expert prognosis, the family’s hopes have risen because her eyes have been opened and they want to repatriate her to Shanghai Huashan Hospital for specialist treatment.
But they need to raise more than $430,000 in a matter of days to secure medical repatriation with global charter booking service JetBay.
Xinyi Zhang, also known as Juno, suffered “catastrophic” brain injuries after a road traffic accident in Sydney on September 24. The young newlywed is currently in a coma on life support in the intensive care unit of St Vincent’s Hospital in the city’s CBD. (pictured)
Dr Jacob Fairhall (pictured), a leading neurosurgeon at the hospital, believes Ms Zhang will not recover from her injuries.
Lawyers for St Vincent’s Hospital opposed the legal order because, “unfortunate as it may be”, they believed that further treatment of Ms Zhang was “futile”.
St Vincent’s intensive care specialist Dr Stephen Morgan said that while Ms Zhang may still have some natural reflexes, such as blinking, this did not alter the assessment of the irreparable damage to her brain.
However, the New South Wales Supreme Court ruled in favor of her parents to briefly maintain life support, but stopped short of ordering doctors to resuscitate Ms Zhang as it went against their medical opinion.
“Despite the gloomy medical predictions, some degree of credence must be given to his parents’ and relatives’ hopes for a recovery,” Judge David Hammerschlag ruled.
‘But this has to be balanced with the short-term practical availability of them being able to get an evacuation and a medical ruling.
Chinese citizens are optimistic that she can recover because she has opened her eyes and want to repatriate her to Huashan Hospital in Shanghai for specialist treatment (pictured).
‘In light of the exceptional circumstances of this case, I have concluded that life support (via intubation) should be continued for eight days, but no longer, to give them the opportunity to achieve this.
“Nor do I consider that St Vincent should be ordered, contrary to what it considers to be the ethical responsibilities of doctors, to provide resuscitation (rather than maintaining life support without resuscitation) during this period.”
The ruling, published on October 10, means that Ms Zhang’s parents have until Thursday to raise the necessary funds.
Attempts were made to contact Ms. Zhang’s parents.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted St Vincent’s Hospital and JetBay for comment.
