{"id":168323,"date":"2017-06-29T09:43:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T13:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=168323"},"modified":"2017-06-30T12:28:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T16:28:02","slug":"european-court-human-rights-charlie-gard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/european-court-human-rights-charlie-gard\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital refuses to let Charlie Gard’s parents take their son home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Earlier this month, Live Action News’ Nancy Flanders wrote about the battle to save Charlie Gard’s life<\/a>. Ten-month-old Charlie was placed on life support two months ago, after he became dangerously sick due to the extremely rare RRM2B mitochondrial depletion syndrome that, until then, doctors did not know he had.<\/p>\n

Charlie was being kept on life support at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, wanted to take him to the United States for an experimental treatment that could save his life. The hospital fought Charlie’s parents and wanted to take him off life support.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/a><\/p>\n

The battle to save Charlie was taken to England’s courts. His parents have raised \u00a31,308,640 so far ($1.4 million USD), and they found a doctor willing to provide the experimental treatment in an effort to save their son’s life. But a court ruled against Charlie’s parents, who quickly appealed. Charlie was kept on life support while the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court in London all ruled on his case \u2013 and they all ruled in favor of the hospital. The parents’ last hope was the European Court of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that court ruled against them as well, and Charlie’s parents have now lost their final appeal<\/a>. Charlie will be taken off life support, reportedly on Friday<\/a>, against their wishes.<\/p>\n

Doctors at the hospital argued that, as the treatment for Charlie is experimental, it won’t help him. They also said that as Charlie cannot see or hear and is “suffering,” it is better for him to die. His parents disagree. “We have been with Charlie day in, day out and watched our poor baby get weaker and weaker, now he needs a ventilator to breathe but we have never lost hope throughout all this time,” Yates wrote on the family\u2019s GoFundMe page. “After endlessly researching and speaking to Dr\u2019s all over the world we found hope in a medication that may help him and a Dr in America has accepted him in his hospital.”<\/p>\n

Charlie’s parents knew that the treatment isn’t guaranteed to save his life, but their reasons for trying it anyway were twofold. First, it gave Charlie a shot at living. Second, it could help other children with Charlie’s disease, even if Charlie himself didn’t survive. “We just want to have our chance. It would never be a cure but it could help him live. If it saves him, amazing. I want to save others. Even if Charlie doesn\u2019t make it through this, I don\u2019t ever want another mum and their child to go through this,” Yates said in an interview with the BBC.<\/p>\n

The European Court of Human Rights still ruled against them, saying the parents’ application was “inadmissible” and that their decision is final.<\/p>\n

The hospital was required to keep Charlie on life support until the European court ruling; now it is free to remove him from life support and let him die, although a statement released by the hospital said it would not immediately<\/em> let Charlie die. “There will be no rush by Great Ormond Street Hospital to change Charlie’s care and any future treatment plans will involve careful planning and discussion,” the statement read. After the hospital issued this statement, Charlie’s parents told British media that the hospital is refusing to let them take Charlie home<\/a> and is planning to pull his support on Friday.<\/p>\n