Hospital bosses have halted High Court litigation and agreed that a teenage Jehovah’s Witness should not be treated with blood products against his will.
They had asked a judge to make a decision about what was in the boy’s best interests but lawyers on Wednesday said an agreement had been reached.
A barrister representing the NHS hospital trust responsible for the boy’s care said another treatment would be tried.
Mr Justice Moor, who was preparing to analyse evidence in a hearing at the Family Division of the High Court in London, approved the agreement
The boy had insisted he could not be given a blood transfusion, or treated with blood products, because of his religious beliefs.
Lawyers had told the judge the boy was born abroad and had lived in England with a relative for some time.
They said the boy’s father was dead and his mother’s whereabouts were unknown.
The case echoes the plot of Ian McEwan’s 2014 novel The Children Act, which was made into a film starring Emma Thompson.
In the novel, a judge decides a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness should have a blood transfusion against his wishes, to save his life.
Mr Justice Moor approved the agreement at a private hearing on Wednesday.
He made an order barring media reports of the case from identifying the boy, who is in his mid-teens and lives in the South East.
The judge also said the trust could not be named in case that information created a jigsaw picture which revealed the boy’s identity.
Jehovah’s Witnesses say their attitude to blood stems from Biblical teaching.
“Both the Old and New Testaments clearly command us to abstain from blood,” says the religion’s website, www.jw.org.
“God views blood as representing life. So we avoid taking blood not only in obedience to God but also out of respect for him as the Giver of life.”
The website highlights a number of Biblical references, including passages in Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Acts.