Parents, hospital clash over Charlie
london — The parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard on Tuesday accused a London hospital of preventing their son from coming home to die, the latest harrowing confrontation in a legal battle that has raised emotions far and wide.
The renowned children’s hospital treating Charlie told a court that the invasive ventilation the infant requires cannot be provided to him in his parents’ home. Instead, it proposed transferring Charlie to a hospice.
The plight of 11-month-old Charlie, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, has been at the centre of a bitter dispute between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
The case has triggered a strident debate on social media and in the press about whether doctors, judges or parents should decide a child’s fate. US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis are among many people who have weighed in with views.
Staff at Great Ormond Street, a hospital so revered in Britain it was featured in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, have received death threats and abuse.
Charlie requires a ventilator to breathe and cannot see, hear or swallow. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, resigned themselves to letting him die after the most recent set of scans showed his condition had deteriorated to the point no recovery was possible.
But Yates was back at the London High Court on Tuesday, this time for a hearing on practical arrangements for the end of Charlie’s life.
The parents want Charlie to be taken to their home or to the home of a close relative or friend for his last moments until his life support system is switched off. Their lawyer, Grant Armstrong, told the London High Court that Great Ormond Street was placing “obstacle after obstacle” in the way of the parents’ wish. —