5 more days for Charlie as judges hear parents’ plea
THE parents of seriously ill baby Charlie Gard were yesterday given a few more days to fight for his future.
Judges from the European Court of Human Rights extended the ten-month-old’s life support while they consider the case for him to have further treatment.
Parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates had faced the prospect of Charlie’s life support being withdrawn from midnight last night if Strasbourg judges had refused to examine the heart-rending case.
They want to take their son to the US for experimental therapy but doctors in Britain have said he is so ill that further treatment would be ‘futile’. The couple, from Bedfont in West London, have lost battles in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, meaning the Strasbourg court is their last hope.
Lawyers for the parents are to set out their case by Monday, when the latest emergency order keeping Charlie on life support expires.
Charlie has a rare genetic condition that saps energy from his muscles and organs.
Doctors say his quality of life and prospect of recovery are both so low that it would be ‘unethical’ to keep him alive.
But his parents have fought a desperate legal battle to stop Great Ormond Street Hospital in London withdrawing his life support to allow him to die. The couple say he responds to them and is getting stronger. They have pleaded to be allowed to take him to the US for the experimental treatment, which has never been used on a human.
His mother Miss Yates, 31, a carer, has shared photographs of Charlie with his eyes open and has said they are ‘proof’ that his condition is not as hopeless as doctors have stated.
She posted an image on Facebook with the message ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’.
The London courts both ruled he should be allowed to die after hearing medical evidence that he had suffered severe brain damage and could not see, hear or move.
Great Ormond Street has said further treatment is unlikely to help him and is not in his best interest because he could be suffering while kept alive. His story has prompted 83,000 supporters to donate more than £ 1.3million towards the US treatment.
‘Not as hopeless as doctors stated’