The parents embroiled in a custody dispute with their surrogate have launched a fierce new legal attack on the woman who declined their request to terminate their gravely ill baby’s pregnancy.
Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar claim their surrogate, 28-year-old McKenna West, ‘fabricated’ an emergency and endangered the child’s medical care.
The allegations were laid out in a fresh filing before the US Supreme Court, where the bitter, multi-state fight over their five-week-old son has now reached the country’s highest court.
Lawyers for Ahmed and Gilkar accused West of mounting a ‘publicity tour,’ misrepresenting the baby’s healthcare and bringing legal claims that, they argue, could ultimately put his treatment at risk.
Their extraordinary response follows West’s request for the Supreme Court to pause a California ruling that recognized Ahmed and Gilkar as the legal parents of the critically ill newborn. The couple calls the baby Rumi, while West refers to him as Gabriel.
West carried the child as the couple’s gestational surrogate, but refused to end the pregnancy after prenatal testing revealed he had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, known as HLHS.
The potentially fatal congenital heart condition leaves the left side of the heart severely underdeveloped, disrupting normal blood flow. It typically requires several major surgeries beginning soon after birth, and even children who receive treatment may experience severe complications throughout their lives.
West is seeking custody or conservatorship, saying she fears the couple could deny the child lifesaving medical treatment.
Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed say they have never wavered in their commitment to obtaining lifesaving medical care for their critically ill son
Surrogate McKenna West, 28, carried the baby as a gestational surrogate but declined to terminate the pregnancy after discovering he had a severe congenital heart defect
Baby Rumi is pictured surrounded by medical equipment and monitors as he receives intensive hospital treatment for his severe congenital heart condition
Ahmed and Gilkar have vehemently rejected that allegation.
Their lawyers said in Friday’s filing that granting West’s requested emergency stay would ‘endanger rather than safeguard’ Rumi by throwing into doubt who has authority to approve his medical treatment.
‘McKenna West fabricated an emergency,’ attorney Adam Wolf said in a statement accompanying the filing.
‘If the Supreme Court were to grant the application for an emergency stay, it would threaten Rumi’s ability to receive necessary healthcare, further stacking the deck against him. It’s time to stop playing politics. A child’s life is at stake.’
The parents’ attorneys also turned their ire on West’s public campaign surrounding the extraordinary dispute.
‘While McKenna West has been conducting a publicity tour, Rumi’s parents have been quietly caring for their child and following the recommendations of Rumi’s medical team,’ attorney Lee Budner said.
Budner argued that putting the California parentage ruling on hold would not suddenly make West Rumi’s parent, but could create dangerous uncertainty for doctors.
‘A stay would not change who Rumi’s parents are,’ he said. ‘It would only create confusion over medical decision-making authority and jeopardize the providers’ ability to rely on the parents’ consent to Rumi’s treatment.
The tiny five-week-old lies amid tubes, wires and breathing equipment following major heart surgery, as the bitter legal battle over his future continues
West, center, has taken the extraordinary custody battle to the US Supreme Court, seeking emergency intervention in the fight over the baby’s parentage and care
West and her attorneys have repeatedly pushed for the surrogate to have decision-making authority over the baby, who has remained in his biological parents’ care since he was born on August 12
‘No parents should face such uncertainty and confusion regarding their child’s life.’
The escalating war of words follows months of extraordinary legal maneuvering stretching across California, Alaska and Texas.
West entered a gestational surrogacy agreement with Ahmed and Gilkar before the pregnancy.
But everything changed when Rumi was diagnosed in April with HLHS.
READ MORE: Woman who allegedly killed her husband gets pregnant in jail – NewsFinale
Ahmed and Gilkar acknowledge that they initially wanted the pregnancy terminated following the devastating diagnosis.
West scheduled an abortion appointment but ultimately decided she could not go through with it.
‘I knew that this baby, despite the diagnosis, had a great chance at survival and a great chance at leading a long life,’ West later told a Texas court.
The couple have denied forcing her to have an abortion and say that after she changed her mind they began preparing for their son’s extensive medical needs.
The relationship nevertheless collapsed.
West traveled from Alaska to Texas in July and eventually gave birth there on August 12.
Ahmed and Gilkar rushed from California to Texas after learning she was going to be induced.
West claims she is not fighting to ‘try to take someone else’s baby,’ but instead advocating for a child to get the ‘ongoing treatment his fragile heart requires’
Rumi required intensive medical care from birth and has already undergone major heart surgery.
Photographs released by his parents this week show the tiny infant surrounded by medical equipment with a surgical scar running down his chest.
At an emotional August court hearing, Gilkar broke down while describing her fight to become a mother following eight unsuccessful rounds of IVF and a hysterectomy.
‘He’s our child,’ she said through tears. ‘We’ve never wanted anything more than this baby.’
Gilkar also rejected West’s suggestion that the couple would deny their son lifesaving care.
‘Denying lifesaving care is not true,’ she told the court. ‘We are devastated.’
West has continued to argue that she should have legal authority to protect the child and has taken her fight all the way to the Supreme Court.
Her lawyers have argued that the California parentage judgment was imposed without adequate due process and that she was subsequently shut out of the Texas case concerning the infant.
Her Supreme Court application warned that without intervention, Ahmed and Gilkar could halt lifesaving treatment before the justices even had the opportunity to consider her case.
The parents have now turned that argument on its head.
West is in the midst of a legal battle with California couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed after she refused to abort their child, who was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect while in utero
Their attorneys say Ahmed and Gilkar have followed the recommendations of Rumi’s doctors and have been a constant presence at the hospital.
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the couple to take their son from Texas to Los Angeles, where they live, after concluding that the evidence did not cast doubt on their commitment to obtaining appropriate medical treatment for him.
West’s legal campaign has received backing from Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal advocacy organization that has been involved in major legal battles over abortion, religious freedom and LGBTQ+ rights.
Meanwhile, Ahmed and Gilkar are pursuing a separate lawsuit against West in Alaska alleging breach of contract and emotional distress. Those allegations remain unresolved.
Rumi’s parents have now launched a GoFundMe to help pay for surgeries, medication, therapy, hospital stays, travel and other costs associated with his treatment.