ABSTRACT
In a High Court application from Newcastle, a 63-year-old woman (LM), who had been a Jehovah's Witness since the 1970s, was found wandering and confused outside her home; her Hb was 37 on presentation to hospital, where a bleeding duodenal ulcer was diagnosed. The conversation with the gastroenterologists was recorded in the notes, but no formal advanced decision to refuse life-saving treatment existed. Similarly, she had not created a Lasting Power of Attorney enabling refusal of life-saving treatment. The Trust's position was that LM had made her wishes known, even with the knowledge of impending death. When considering her, incapacitated, the Trust did not feel that transfusion was in her best interests, since it would be an affront to her established wishes. Adults are presumed to have capacity, but this may be challenged by clinicians should they suspect otherwise. The facts show that LM's clinicians tested her capacity, and found it intact.
