The family of an elderly patient have successfully overturned a decision by doctors to deny her food.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is being treated at Maidstone Hospital for the advanced stages of dementia and Parkinson’s disease, which affects her ability to swallow.

She relies on a special tube which carries food and medicine to the stomach through the nose.

But just over a week ago it became dislodged and her clinical team say attempts to re-insert it had caused her “severe distress”.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust had asked a judge to rule on whether her feeding tube should be re-inserted.

Its case was put to the Court of Protection in London’s Royal Courts of Justice, which rules on cases involving those who are unable to make decisions themselves, on Thursday.

The Trust had told High Court Judge Justice Peter Jackson that continuing to re-install the tube, or using other forms of artificial nutrition, would cause unneccessary suffering and “simply prolong her process of dying”, a decision challenged by the patient’s family.

But now it has requested an adjournment while further attempts are made to put the tube back in.

The decision will go before the court again if the procedure is unsuccessful.