A High Court judge has revealed that the parents of a baby who needs urgent heart surgery have threatened health staff with legal action in efforts to prevent the operation going ahead.
The case has been in the High Court at Auckland this week after the parents refused to consent to the surgery if health authorities could not give them assurances that the blood products that would need to be used had not come from people who have had the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine.
On Wednesday, Justice Ian Gault approved an application from Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to have guardianship of the baby transferred to the court so the surgery could proceed.
Yesterday morning, the parents' lawyer Sue Grey said in the statement they would not be appealing the decision.
But in an unusual late-evening minute, Justice Gault said their position had changed.
"Staff at Te Toka Tumai have endeavoured to take steps to prepare [the baby] for surgery (scheduled for tomorrow morning), including taking blood tests, performing a chest x-ray and performing an anaesthetic assessment.
"[The lawyer for Te Whatu Ora] understands that the parents prevented this occurring, and advised health staff that 'you touch our child and we will press criminal charges against you'," the minute read.
Police had been contacted, it said.
Grey sought to appear before the court with "experts" from the US to discuss the issues the family have raised.
In court previously, she had raised concerns about "contaminated blood" in the NZ Blood Service, as well as concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine in general.
The concerns had been refuted by medical professionals.
"Ms Grey submitted the use of police to uplift a baby whose health is stable and who is gaining weight is extreme overreach, especially as other expert cardiologists who have considered the evidence have different views," the minute read.
But Justice Gault said while his orders in relation to guardianship and the surgery reserved leave for the parties to apply to the court for a review, that did not extend to the re-opening of the case as sought by Grey.
"Now that the parents evidently do not consent to the surgery or pre-operative checks, it is clearly necessary to make consequential ancillary orders to enable the surgery to proceed," Justice Gault said.
"I extend the appointment of [the doctors] as agents of the Court for the purpose of enabling [the baby's] surgery to proceed, including enabling the necessary pre-operative procedures. The respondents are not to obstruct health staff in this regard."
The surgery is scheduled for this morning.
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