Improving decision-making about life-sustaining treatment for patients with severe brain injury

In the days, weeks and early months after injury

Professor Jenny Kitzinger (Co-Director of the Coma and Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre, Cardiff University) and Professor Lynne Turner-Stokes (Northwick Park Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, King’s College London and Director, Regional Hyper-acute Rehabilitation Unit, Northwick Park Hospital).

A workshop bringing together key perspectives from across the fields of medicine, law, sociology and family experience was held on Thursday 19 March, followed by a public lecture by Professor Turner-Stokes: Contested decision-making about life-sustaining treatment for adults after catastrophic brain injury: Is current law and practice fit for purpose and how can we work together to make it better? Both events were adapted following the Court of Appeal judgement  Townsend vs Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust [2026] EWCA Civ 195 shortly before they took place, and the project leads continue to work on responses to that judgement and the ongoing legal process.

Download the workshop report (PDF)