Give them some peace!
Tempers flare in court as Charlie’s lawyers and parents accuse hospital chiefs of denying him a final goodbye at home
CHARLIe Gard’s parents yesterday accused hospital chiefs of placing ‘obstacle after obstacle’ in the way of their final wish to take him home to die.
They went back to the High Court to beg to be allowed to spend four days of ‘tranquillity’ with their son before withdrawing his life support.
But Great Ormond Street Hospital said his ventilator ‘does not fit through the front door’ of the family’s flat in Bedfont, south-west London – and suggested a team of six specialist nurses and three doctors would need to accompany him to ensure his ‘dignity’.
After a bad-tempered court hearing, the couple’s solicitor snarled ‘Give them some peace!’ at the hospital’s QC, while Charlie’s mother Connie Yates issued a desperate last-minute appeal to ‘any paediatric intensive care doctor to come forward’ to help the distraught parents fulfil their final wish.
She said: ‘We promised Charlie every day we would take him home.
‘It seems really upsetting, after everything we’ve been through, to deny us this.’ Charlie’s father Chris Gard spent the day at his son’s bedside.
On Monday, Miss Yates, 31, and Mr Gard, 33, reduced the High Court to tears by making the agonising decision to let Charlie die after an eightmonth legal battle. They accepted their 11-month-old, who has mitochondrial disease, was now beyond hope of any cure and would not live to see his first birthday on Friday next week.
But their plan to take Charlie home, give him baths and let him sleep in his cot before saying their final goodbyes on Monday next week have been dashed by the hospital.
Barrister Grant Armstrong, who is representing the family for free, told the court: ‘The parents’ last wish is to take Charlie home for a few days of tranquillity outside the hospital. Provided appropriate medical care is provided to Charlie, Great Ormond Street has no legal right to detain him in hospital.’ But he said: ‘They have put obstacle after obstacle in the parents’ way.’
Mr Armstrong said the hospital had previously agreed there was ‘no issue’ with Charlie being allowed home to die, but for unknown reasons was now blocking it. He said: ‘We can’t see what the problem is. On one hand they are saying they are not standing in the parents’ way, and on the other are putting obstacles in the way which can be surmounted.’
The court heard the hospital was insisting a ‘full team’ of paediatric intensive care doctors and nurses would be needed, along with a ‘health and safety assessment’, a special bed and ‘security personnel and a police escort’ to take Charlie home. But the ‘key obstacle which the hospital cannot see a way around’, said Great Ormond Street’s QC Katie Gollop, was Charlie’s need for a ventilator to help him breathe – which she claimed would not fit though the front door of the parents’ flat.
Miss Gollop said it was outrageous to say the hospital was putting up obstacles. ‘ nothing could be further from the truth,’ she said. ‘The hospital has moved heaven and earth to make [the parents’ wish] possible.’
She claimed Great Ormond Street chiefs had scoured the UK for a paediatric intensive care doctor willing to look after Charlie at home but had come away empty handed.
Mr Armstrong said an agency would supply 24-hour nursing and there was no need for a team of doctors as Charlie was stable and the couple just wanted to say their goodbyes in private at home. Mr Justice Francis expressed fears of Charlie suffering if something went awry with his breathing tube at home. He said if it was true Charlie needed a round the clock team of intensive care medics, ‘that is going to be conclusive’. He granted Charlie’s parents until lunchtime today to come up with evidence they could provide an appropriate setting for his death. He will make a final decision this afternoon. Another option is a hospice and one has agreed to help. But Miss Gollop said British hospices were not ‘licensed or insured’ to take someone with Charlie’s needs overnight, so he would need to die the same day he arrived – contrary to the parents’ wishes to spend ‘a few precious days’ with him.
‘Moved heaven and earth’