Alfie’s final fight
As he breathes on without life support, a plea to his parents
BRAIN-DAMAGED Alfie Evans was clinging to life last night, a day after the toddler’s ventilator was turned off – as a judge urged his parents to accept his fate.
Lawyers for his parents went before the High Court again yesterday to argue that his continuing survival had proved doctors wrong and he should be allowed to fly to Italy, where he has been offered treatment.
However, Mr Justice Hayden – who had previously ruled that further tests would be cruel – dismissed the last-ditch application by Alfie’s father, Tom Evans, 21, and mother, Kate James, 20.
Instead, he asked doctors at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where Alfie is being treated, to come up with a palliative care plan that would allow Alfie to go home – or spend his last hours away from intensive care, either on a normal ward or in a hospice.
The developments came after Pope Francis, who met Mr Evans last week, said Alfie’s parents should be allowed to ‘seek new forms of treatment’, and the 23-month-old boy was given Italian citizenship to help him get care in Rome.
Alder Hey has argued that Alfie, who has a degenerative neurological condition that is destroying his brain, cannot survive unaided and it was in his best interests to withdraw treatment.
Alfie’s ventilator, food and water were stopped at 9.40pm on Monday. But he continued breathing all the night, and Mr Evans said amazed doctors agreed to give him oxygen and water.
He added: ‘They say Alfie’s suffering. Well, look at him now. He’s not even on a ventilator and he’s not suffering. Doctors said he would die within five minutes of being taken off a life-support machine.’
The couple’s lawyers then secured a hearing before a High Court judge to argue that Alfie’s survival without life support backed their argument that he should be allowed to fly to Italy.
But, describing Alfie as ‘a fighter and warrior’, Mr Justice Hayden urged his parents to spend whatever ‘special’ time they had left with him and rebuild their relationship with doctors so he could be supported away from intensive care.
He added: ‘The brain stem is enabling Alfie just about to sustain respiration. There is virtually nothing of his brain left. This represents the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy.’