This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The family of a very ill but fully conscious Christian patient in the United Kingdom condemned to die after doctors said she was not able to make decisions and should not be allowed to seek life-saving treatments abroad is speaking out.
According to a report in CBN, the family of Sudiksha Thirumalesh, 19, issued a statement after the teen's death just days ago.
"We want to thank the medical practitioners who did their best for Sudiksha. To those few clinicians who seemed only to care about Sudiksha dying, we forgive you. We are a Christian family who believes in life, love, and forgiveness."
They continued, "Sudiksha was a wonderful daughter and sister who we will cherish forever. We cannot imagine life without her. We seek justice for Sudiksha today and for others in her situation.
"We are deeply disturbed by how we have been treated by the hospital trust and the courts. We have been gagged, silenced, and most importantly, prevented from accessing specialist treatment abroad for Sudiksha. Had she been allowed to seek nucleoside treatment six months ago it may well be that she would still be with us and recovering."
The teen died last week following a lengthy hospital and court battle in which the U.K.'s National Health Service prevented her from seeking potentially life-saving treatments abroad.
For months, the courts, at the insistence of the NHS, refused to give the family permission even to release her name. Even now, the courts have ordered a complete censorship of the name of the health institution and doctors involved in depriving her of an option to be treated abroad.
She was diagnosed with a rare Mitochondrial disease that caused muscle weakness, loss of hearing, and kidney damage.
Despite her health condition, she was fully conscious and able to communicate, seeking permission to try to find successful treatment, explaining she would rather "die trying to live.'
Doctors, who still remain in hiding behind court-ordered anonymity, refused her permission to do that, effectively prescribing death for her.
She had sought permission from the Court of Protection to travel to Canada to join a clinical trial of cutting-edge nucleoside treatment to help her, but was refused, the report said.
"A judgment from Mrs. Justice Roberts in the weeks before her death disturbingly said that Sudiksha did not have the capacity to make such decisions after the NHS lawyers argued she was 'delusional' for disagreeing with the hospital's view that her condition was hopeless and she had to be put on an end of life pathway. The ruling was made despite two psychiatrists providing evidence to the contrary," according to Christian Concern, which advocated for the ill teen.
"The family, Thirumalesh Chellamal Hemachandran, Revathi Malesh Thirumalesh, and her brother Varshan Chellamal Thirumalesh, spent all their savings on legal fees to stop NHS from pursuing efforts to end her life," the reported explained.
When the NHS put her on "palliative care," after the court's fatal ruling, she died of kidney failure.
Now pending in the courts is a request by the family to "name the hospital, the hospital trust, and the clinicians involved in their daughter's situation."
Andrea Williams, chief of the Christian Legal Center, told the publication, "This profoundly disturbing case has demonstrated the urgent need for an overhaul into how critical care decisions are made in the NHS and the courts. There is an urgent need for a more open and transparent system. Justice is done in the light and not behind closed doors."
The case exhibited many similarities to the cases involving Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and Archie Battersbee, where each time the NHS asked the Court of Protection to authorize the removal of life-saving medical treatment so that they would die.
WND reported when the judge's fatal ruling came down that the judge had refused to accept the testimony of multiple expert psychiatrists who said she was mentally alert and competent.
The report noted that the judge claimed she wasn't, based on the fact that she had hoped that an experimental treatment would be found that could help.
