A daughter is battling to ensure that her seriously ill father’s fight for life will not be ended by a stranger.
Karen Lamb’s dad John Lamb, 77, needs round-the-clock care after suffering a major stroke in 2012.
Dundee City Council wants to take guardianship of him, which Karen says would allow it to decide when medical treatment can be withheld, leaving him to die.
However, Karen and her family believe that her mother Phyliss, 75, John’s wife of 52 years, should have the right to decide what is in his best interests.
They have challenged the council’s application and launched a petition to try to persuade chief executive David Martin to withdraw it.
Beauty therapist Karen, of Tayport, said: “All we want as a family is for my mum to be able to make the decision she feels is right for my dad.
“He said he is still fighting and you can’t stop treatment when someone has said that.”
John, who was a foreman at the Michelin tyre factory, was cared for at home in Dundee’s Barnhill for two years.
However, he was readmitted to Ninewells Hospital suffering from pneumonia last year after what Karen claimed was an error in his care.
He is now a patient at the city’s Royal Victoria Hospital.
While still at Ninewells, his family say they only learned that the hospital had started to discontinue treatment when his granddaughter Shannon spotted it on a chart near his bed.
Karen said: “His health at that time had deteriorated to such an extent that the hospital started to discontinue treatment.
“After my father told me he was fighting I took action to stop this process and he has survived another year and two months.
“Unfortunately however the social work department has put in for guardianship of him, wanting the legal rights to withhold consent to medical treatment and who will be allowed to visit him.”
She added: “In its worst case scenario my dad’s treatment can be withdrawn again and we, as a family, would be able to help but unable to act.
“To consent to withhold treatment means to let him die. If anyone is going to make that decision it has to be my mum, not some stranger.”
Karen also urged other families in similar circumstances to ensure that they seek power of attorney.
She said they had been advised that although she is John’s next of kin Phyliss has no automatic control over matters.
She said: “This document would have saved my father, his wife, daughters and grandchildren endless unnecessary agony and tears.”
More than 950 people have signed the petition on change.org.
Dundee City Council declined to comment.
A spokesman said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on any individual case.”
