JUDGE GIVES CHARLIE GARD’S PARENTS DEADLINE

LONDON Critically ill baby Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice and taken off life support unless his parents and a hospital agree on a plan that could potentially keep the child alive for a bit longer, a British judge ruled Wednesday.

High Court judge Nicholas Francis gave 11-monthold Charlie’s parents and the hospital that has been treating him until noon Thursday to come to terms on an endof-life care plan for the infant’s final hours or days.

The baby suffers from a rare genetic disease, mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which has caused brain damage and left him unable to breathe unaided. Recent tests found Charlie has irreversible muscular damage.

Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates, pictured, and Chris Gard, spent months trying to persuade Great Ormond Street Hospital to let Charlie go to the United States for experimental treatment. They gave up their fight on Monday, acknowledging that the window of opportunity to help him had closed.