Court of Protection considers brain injured policeman’s case

The Court of Protection is to decide whether to withdraw life support treatment for a police officer who was critically injured in a car crash last summer.

Lindsey Briggs attended proceedings to make an impassioned case for her husband Paul to be allowed to die.

PC Briggs, a former serviceman from Merseyside, suffered catastrophic injuries in the collision, including a bleed on the brain, a fractured spine and damage to his internal organs.

The 43-year-old has been left in a minimally conscious state following the crash.

Medical opinion is that while he may emerge from his current state, he would remain severely disabled physically.

Mrs Briggs said: “I think he would see it as torture, just as hell, that everything he believes in and he lives for would just be taken away from him. He would be living for no reason.”

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust and the Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group suggested there had been some improvements in PC Briggs’ condition and they are concerned that withdrawing “artificial hydration and nutrition” could cause him pain and distress.

The Court of Protection is now considering the evidence and will make a judgment at a later date.

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