Samuel Golubchuk, 84, has been on life support with minimal brain function at the Grace Hospital since last fall. (Family photo)A Manitoba judge has moved up the date for a trial that will determine whether an elderly man should be kept on life support.

The case surrounding the care of Samuel Golubchuk was set to start in December, but Court of Queen's Bench Justice Marc Monnin sided Thursday with an application from the Grace Hospital to move the trial up to mid-September.

The Winnipeg hospital says the task of caring for Golubchuk is taking a toll on staff, and one intensive-care specialist has already stopped working rotations at the facility in protest.

"I must recognize that the uncertainty created by this case is having an apparently negative impact upon the operation of the hospital, an issue which transcends the personal concerns of the plaintiffs," Monnin said in a written ruling.

Golubchuk, 84, has been on life support since last November and is relying on a feeding tube and a ventilator.

Hospital officials decided last year to end Golubchuk's life support, saying he had virtually no chance of improving.

Samuel Golubchuk's children, Miriam Geller and Percy Golubchuk, say taking him off life support would hasten his death, something they consider tantamount to murder under their Orthodox Jewish religious beliefs. (CBC)But the Golubchuk family took the matter to court, saying the move would violate his beliefs as an Orthodox Jew. Removing the ventilator or feeding tube would constitute an action to hasten his death, they argued.

Earlier this spring, Dr. Anand Kumar, the man who originally made the decision to end life support, resigned from rotations at the hospital. Kumar said he could no longer continue in good conscience to keep Golubchuk alive.

Golubchuk had developed ulcers on his skin, eventually requiring doctors to "surgically hack away at his infected flesh" in a treatment akin to torture, Kumar wrote in his resignation letter.

But the Golubchuk family's lawyer says the hospital's position is contradictory. If Golubchuk is in the poor condition the hospital describes, then he cannot feel pain, Neil Kravetsky said.

Kravetsky said Thursday the timing of the trial provides a challenge. He'll be hardpressed to line up expert witnesses from the United States and Israel on such short notice, especially with Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah falling within the trial period.

"In my view, [it will be] next to impossible, not only to get ready, but to have my witnesses available," Kravetsky said Thursday.