I’ve drawn strength from Charlie’s family... they’ve been through same as us
Archie mum’s bond with Gard parents
THE mum of a schoolboy embroiled in a right-to-life court battle says she “draws on the strength” of the parents of tragic tot Charlie Gard.
Hollie Dance was dealt the devastating High Court ruling on Monday that her son Archie Battersbee, 12, was effectively dead and should no longer be treated.
But she has vowed to “continue to fight” for her child, who has spent nearly 10 weeks in a coma after taking part in a viral online “blackout” challenge.
Hollie said she has forged a bond with the family of baby Charlie, who died in 2018, a week before his first birthday after a fight against a rare genetic illness.
Parents Chris Gard, 37, and Connie Yates, 35, eventually withdrew a High Court application to take him to the US for an experimental course of treatment.
Hollie, 46, told how she and Archie’s dad, Paul Battersbee, 56, faced a race against time to appeal the judge’s ruling after their barristers asked for a onemonth reprieve. She said: “We’re in
contact with Charlie Gard’s family. We draw strength from them, knowing that they’ve been through something similar.
“Our barristers have asked for a month for the appeal but we’ve no idea what we’ll be allowed.
“People don’t seem to be prepared to give him time, which is all we’ve asked for. But we’ll fight all the way. Until my little boy gives up the fight, I won’t give up.”
Hollie also revealed she was in contact with the family of 23-month-old Alfie Evans, whose life support was switched off in April 2018 after his family lost the final stage of appeal.
Little Alfie, of Bootle, Merseyside, was living in a coma for well over a year after being struck down with a progressive neurological degenerative condition.
Hollie said she had also received messages from the family of Tafida Raqeeb, who was aged five when she was put on life support in early 2019 when a blood vessel burst in her brain.
Her family travelled to Italy in October that year after her parents won a landmark High Court legal ruling to take her abroad for treatment. She is still alive. Hollie said: “I’ve had messages from everyone, they all have the same message, ‘Keep fighting’.” Keen gymnast and martial arts enthusiast Archie was found unconscious by his mother on April 7 at their home in Southend, Essex.
His family believe he was copying a social media challenge in which participants hold their breath or choke themselves until they pass out. He suffered a cardiac arrest that starved his
brain of oxygen, and he never regained consciousness. Lawyers for the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London, had asked a judge to rule on whether life-support treatment was in his best interests.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot ruled Archie died on May 31, shortly after his last MRI scans showed “irreversible cessation of brain stem function”, and life-support should be removed.
However, Hollie yesterday said her son may have been unconscious for just three minutes before she found him.
She claims independent medical experts have told the family it means little Archie could still recover.
Speaking on GB News, Hollie said: “The doctor we’ve got from the US is very highly qualified. He said Archie suffered 10% in the process, which is fully reversible.”
A spokesman for Barts Health NHS Trust said their “thoughts and sympathies” were with Archie’s family and that they were allowing time for the appeal.
Until my little boy gives up the fight, I won’t give up HOLLIE DANCE MUM OF SCHOOLBOY ARCHIE, 12
WHEN my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer I never believed he would die. Even when, a few months later, the doctors ushered us into what was plainly a bad news room and told us he was going to.
Despite being a completely glass-half-empty person who always expects the worst, I utterly uncharacteristically transformed from Polly into Pollyanna.
My dad would confound expectation, defy the prognosis, be the exception to the rule. Of course he would. He had to.
I held on to this hope until his last breath, and when he took it, in amongst all the other feelings was shock. When it comes to someone you love that deeply, logic and common sense goes out the window.
So I totally understand why Archie Battersbee’s mum – despite all evidence to the tragic contrary
– is holding out for a miracle.
It’s not that she won’t give up, it’s that she can’t.
Archie has been in a coma since he was found unconscious at his home in Essex on April 7.
On Monday, the High Court ruled the 12 year old would never recover from his injuries so his life-support should be switched off. Doctors treating him have said it is “highly likely” he is brain stem dead, which, by NHS website definition, means that “the damage is irreversible and the person has died”.
It goes on to say it can be “confusing because their life support machine keeps the heart beating and the chest will still rise and fall with every breath from the ventilator. But they have already died.”
Confusing is the very least of it. Whatever facts she has been provided with, all Archie’s mum Hollie can see is her beloved son, apparently just asleep, his little chest rising and falling like it has every night of his life.
She is, understandably, making decisions purely with her heart, not her head.
When you are that invested – when it’s your son, or your dad – you are just too close to see the situation clearly. And also, you don’t want to see it clearly, because then it might actually be real. Archie’s family plan to appeal the ruling. Hollie insisted: “His heart is still beating, he has gripped my hand. As his mother, and my gut instinct, I know my son is still there.” The barrister representing the hospital told the judge that Archie’s treatment team say any movements are reflexes.
Hollie added: “I know of miracles when people have come back from being brain dead. I’m not going to give up, this is just the start of the fight.”
It’s impossible not to feel for her, for the whole family, for Archie. We all want to believe there will be a miracle for them, even though, sadly, they so rarely happen.
This poor woman is obviously devastated, visibly exhausted, utterly shattered by this unbearable nightmare. And yet, on and on she goes. Fighting, hoping, believing. Of course she does. She doesn’t have a choice.
All she can see is his chest rising and falling like it has every night