Doctors rejected turning off Mandela life support

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JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela’s doctors have rejected the idea of turning off the ailing icon’s life support unless he suffers massive organ failure, a close family friend told AFP.

Denis Goldberg – an anti-apartheid activist who has been Mandela’s friend for more than half a century – on Friday said the issue of turning off life support was discussed and ultimately dismissed.

“I was told the matter had been raised and the doctors said they would only consider such a situation if there was a genuine state of organ failure,” Goldberg said.

“Since that hasn’t occurred they were quite prepared to go on stabilising him until he recovers.”

The 80-year-old Goldberg was convicted along with Mandela in 1964 for their fight against white-minority rule.

He visited the former president in hospital on Monday.

A court document filed by a lawyer for Mandela’s family nine days ago stated the 94-year-old was “assisted in breathing by a life support machine.”

“The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off,” the court filing read.

“Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability.”

The document – which was designed to press a court to urgently settle a family row over the remains of Mandela’s children – also stated that Mandela was “in a permanent vegetative state.”

South Africa’s presidency has stated that is not the case, but has refused to give further details of his condition, citing the need to respect Mandela’s privacy.

On the day the document was drafted, President Jacob Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to Mozambique to confer with Mandela’s doctors amid fears the 94-year-old may be close to the end.

Zuma, Mandela family members and his close friends have since reported his condition has improved.

South African presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP on Friday that Zuma’s office “had not been party” to the court material and would not speculate on its content.

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting white-minority rule and went on to lead the process of racial reconciliation as South Africa’s first black president, has now spent a month in hospital after being admitted with a recurrent lung infection.

South Africa’s parliament on Friday hosted a prayer service in a Cape Town cathedral where Mandela was hailed as “an icon of a truly free South Africa”.

“It is a reflective period for our people,” said national assembly deputy speaker NomaIndiya Mfeketo.

“The thought of Madiba in hospital indisposed due to illness is harrowing. This is not what we wish for our beloved hero.”

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) dedicated its annual Gauteng provincial general council meeting in Pretoria to Mandela. — AFP