Girl drug taker rejected on moral grounds, says grandmother
Doctors in transplant row 'were guilty of euthanasia'
By Auslan Cramb Scottish Correspondent
A WOMAN whose granddaughter was allegedly refused a potentially life-saving liver transplant "on moral grounds", because she had taken ecstasy at a rave, accused doctors of committing euthanasia yesterday.
She also compared the case with that of the former international footballer Jim Baxter, who had two transplants.
Michelle Paul, 15, became ill in November, 1995, after experimenting with half an ecstasy tablet at a "rave" near her home in Aberdeen.
She was transferred from a local hospital to the transplant unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, but died of liver failure 23 days after taking the tablet.
A transplant was said to be the only hope of survival for Miss Paul. She died a week after Leah Betts, from Essex, who took ecstasy at her 18th birthday party.
Margaret Pirie, 56, told a fatal accident inquiry at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday that a doctor admitted that the decision not to operate had been taken on moral grounds by a senior surgeon, Dr Hilary Sanfey.
She said the news was broken by Dr Niall Finlayson, who said the "moral grounds" included the fact that the teenager's mother, Carolann Paul, was a self-confessed former drug addict, and that Miss Paul had admitted taking ecstasy.
"He said he could not make a surgeon operate, and it was on moral grounds that the decision had been taken," said Mrs Pirie. "As I saw it, what they had done was to commit euthanasia."
She said she had become angry and asked him why "a certain person" could get two transplants while her dying grand-daughter could not get one.
Asked by family lawyer David Burnside who she was referring to, Mrs Pirie replied: "Jim Baxter."
She went on to describe the former Rangers and Scottish international as an "ex-alcoholic football player" and agreed with Mr Burnside that she had been making a direct comparison between his case and that of Michelle.
Mrs Pirie told the inquiry that when she met Dr Sanfey the surgeon would only say Michelle was medically unfit for a transplant, and avoided saying whether the decision was based on the fact that she had taken drugs. Asked about Dr Sanfey's attitude, Mrs Pirie replied: ". . . we were just not worth bothering with. That was the impression I got."
She claimed that before Miss Paul was flown from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, no one had indicated that she was unfit for a transplant.
Mrs Pirie said her daughter, Mrs Paul, had been a drug addict for years, but had admitted herself to a rehabilitation centre and had been cured.
The inquiry heard later that tests carried out on the schoolgirl showed she had taken cannabis while being treated in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary before her transfer to Edinburgh.
However, Dr John Douglas, a consultant in the hospital's infection unit, said the drugs could not have had any effect on her liver, and would not have led to the fatal organ failure.
He said the girl's death may have been the first case of its kind in the world and was "enormously rare". He knew of several cases of ecstasy causing hepatitis, but not liver failure.
The inquiry began in January but was adjourned to allow Dr Sanfey, who now works in the United States, to give evidence. She is expected to testify later this week.
