Charlie’s new hope
Judge to let US doctor assess him in person ... as court told new therapy may offer 56% chance of improvement
CHARLIE Gard was thrown a lifeline yesterday as an American doctor offering to treat him was invited to London by a judge.
Mr Justice Francis, who is deciding Charlie’s fate, asked the neurologist to come and assess the baby for himself.
It was the first significant sign the judge may be thinking again about his ruling that Charlie must be left to die.
The 11-month-old’s mother Connie Yates, 31 sobbed as she left the High Court. She and Charlie’s father Chris Gard, 32, had stormed out of the hearing at one point after insisting that their son was ‘not in pain and not suffering’.
The judge had warned the parents that only dramatic new evidence would persuade him to change his mind.
During three hours of examination via a video link from the US, the American doctor offered greatly improved estimates for the boy’s survival, telling the court that there was between a 10 and 56 per cent chance of ‘meaningful improvement’.
The judge then said: ‘If I adjourned for a few days, would you come to London?’ The doctor replied: ‘I would love to do that.’
Victoria Butler-Cole, a barrister for Charlie’s court-appointed guardian, questioned how the doctor could have improved the estimates for the baby’s survival.
The doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, agreed it was a ‘bad sign’ if Charlie’s head was not growing, but said his optimism was based on new data and looking again ‘more thoughtfully’ at previous research.
Charlie, who has a rare genetic condition, has already survived two plans to withdraw his life support. His parents, of Bedfont, south-west London, thought they had reached the end of the road last week, after four courts ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) doctors who said Charlie was brain-damaged and beyond hope, and that it was kinder to let him die.
But Pope Francis and Donald Trump electrified the public campaign to ‘save Charlie’ with supportive tweets. The court heard yesterday that White House staff contacted the American doctor shortly before he made his claims about Charlie. He then spoke with GOSH on July 4. Two days later, a letter was sent by the doctor and six other experts on Charlie’s condition, mitochondrial disease, to the hospital.
It led to GOSH asking the High Court to reconsider the claimed ‘new evidence’. Mr Justice Francis warned he was ‘absolutely not rerunning the case’. But it looks set to stretch into another week.
The US doctor insisted the data had become available since the last High Court hearing in March. He said new drug tests on mice showed rodents with a similar disease to Charlie lived longer and enjoyed improved brain function. He added: ‘We cannot fix or cure his disease … but I’m confident we can improve cognitive function.’ He said Charlie’s apparent brain damage could actually be a muscle problem causing brain ‘dysfunction’, which drugs might fix.
The doctor said there was a 10 to 56 per cent chance of his proposed therapy improving Charlie’s weak muscles, and put the chances of improved brain function at ‘significantly above zero per cent’.
Katie Gollop QC, for GOSH, said the hospital had ‘no objection’ to the doctor coming to Britain.
The judge hit out at remarks by ‘people who know nothing about this case’, as campaigners outside chanted: ‘Medicine not murder’.
He also said GOSH staff ‘have been subjected to the most vile abuse and threats’ and vowed to deal with perpetrators ‘as severely as the legal system permits’.
‘May be wrong on brain damage’