HOSPITAL BLASTS CHARLIE'S U.S. DOCTOR
They say he gave family false hope – and had a financial interest in drugs he was pushing
‘Surprise and disappointment’
AN AMERICAN professor was criticised by Great Ormond Street last night for giving Charlie Gard’s family false hope.
Michio Hirano said his experimental drugs had a chance of helping the sick child and he offered to treat him in the US.
But lawyers for Great Ormond Street said they were concerned to learn the doctor had a financial interest in some of the drugs he proposed to use. The children’s hospital said it was disappointed he had been so optimistic when he had not examined Charlie himself, or read his latest medical records or seen his brain scans.
The court case over Charlie’s treatment was reopened after Dr Hirano and six other experts said they had new evidence that could affect the judge’s earlier decision that the boy would not benefit from further treatment and should be allowed to die.
But Great Ormond Street’s lawyer, Katie Gollop QC, said there were no grounds for such optimism and she questioned why Charlie’s parents were led to believe Dr Hirano’s nucleoside bypass therapy could help.
In a statement to the High Court, she said: ‘When the hospital was informed that the professor had new laboratory findings causing him to believe NBT would be more beneficial to Charlie than he had previously opined, GOSH’s hope for Charlie and his parents was that that optimism would be confirmed.
‘It was, therefore, with increasing surprise and disappointment that the hospital listened to the professor’s fresh evidence to the court.
‘On 13 July he stated that not only had he not visited the hospital to examine Charlie but in addition, he had not read Charlie’s contemporaneous medical records or viewed Charlie’s brain imaging or read all of the second opinions about Charlie’s condition – obtained from experts all of whom had taken the opportunity to examine him and consider his records – or even read the judge’s decision made on April 11.
‘Further, GOSH was concerned to hear the professor state, for the first time, while in the witness box, that he retains a financial interest est in some of the NBT compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie.lie. Devastatingly, the informationion obtained since 13 July gives no cause for optimism.
‘Rather, it confirms that whilehile NBT may well assist others in the future, it cannot and could not have assisted Charlie.’
Dr Hirano, a Harvard-educatedted neuroscientist, told the High Courturt that new drugs had a ‘small but significant’ chance of helping Charlie’s rare condition and it was ‘worth trying’.
Great Ormond Street has been praised by judges for its care of Charlie, but has faced condemnation by some pro-life campaigners.
It has emerged that hospital staff have received death threats and abuse and that police were called after ‘unacceptable behaviour’ was recorded in the hospital.
The case took on the air of a circus when Donald Trump and Pope Francis made high-profile inter- ventions at the start of July.July They were swiftly followed by a radical American pastor loudly calling on God to change the judge’s mind. The pastor – Patrick Mahoney – arrived on July 9 bringing his ‘power of prayer’. He has been arrested – and jailed – in the US for repeated direct action against judges and medics he perceives as being pro-abortion.
Next up was American attorney Catherine Glenn Foster, part of Rev Mahoney’s pro- life lobby. She planted a tender kiss on Charlie’s head and then tweeted it to her fol- lowers and m made it her Facebook profile photo. She has apparently been offering legal tips to the family. Alasdair Seton-Marsden, a UKIP candidate in the general election, was also involved in the case.
He initially made statesman-like pronouncements on behalf of the family outside court. But then he started appearing on American television accusing the NHS of holding Charlie ‘as a captive’. He then fell out with Charlie’s parents over the media strategy.
Last Saturday, hospital chief Mary MacLeod called in police and issued a statement revealing ‘a shocking and disgraceful tide of hostility and disturbance’. In response, Miss Yates and Mr Gard said they were ‘extremely upset by the backlash we have received after Great Ormond Street Hospital put out their statement’. They added: ‘We too have suffered from the most hurtful comments from the public and GOSH is aware of this.’
Dr Hirano, of Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, specialises in mitochondrial depletion syndrome. He did not respond to a request for comment.