Starship hospital doctors will be preparing for the life-saving heart surgery on a baby who's now under the guardianship of the High Court.
Te Whatu Ora took the case to court because the parents refused to allow blood transfusions from anyone who might have had the Pfizer vaccine.
Doctor have said they would be ready to operate within 48 hours of the decision which came out yesterday evening.
The guardianship order lasts until the end of January at the latest, allowing time for the baby to re-cover from the surgery.
Both blood and blood products such as platelets and plasma will be needed for the operation and possibly afterwards.
The baby will be in intensive care for up to a week.
University of Otago bioethics lecturer Josephine Johnstone told Morning Report the ruling was consistent with previous decisions when there have been disputes about what's best for a child with serious medical needs.
Johnstone says many other cases, like when parents have objected to children receiving blood transfusions for religious reasons, have sided in favour of medical advice.
She says in this case, very limited decision making has been taken away from the parents, who have guardianship over the baby for everything aside from the surgery.
