Go home, Alfie’s father tells hospital protesters
Family vow to work with NHS so they can take toddler home for his last hours
THE parents of Alfie Evans yesterday abandoned their fight to take the brain-damaged toddler abroad for treatment and pledged to work with doctors in a bid to take him home to die.
His father Tom Evans, 21, called on Alfie’s Army – the supporters who have been protesting outside Alder Hey Hospital – to disband and ‘go back to their everyday lives’.
After a meeting with doctors, Mr Evans said he, Alfie’s mother, Kate James, 20, and the hospital in Liverpool wanted privacy in order to ‘form a relationship, build a bridge and walk across it’.
‘In Alfie’s interests we will work with his treating team on a plan that provides our boy with the dignity and comfort he needs,’ he said. The comments marked a huge sea change in the couple’s attitude to medics, whom Mr Evans had previously threatened to prosecute for conspiring to murder his 23-month-old son.
Earlier yesterday he had said doctors were treating him and Miss James like criminals. But by 6pm the couple had apparently decided to work with medics, thanking both supporters and hospital staff – many of whom have been the targets of abuse – and said they would not be making any more public comments.
‘Our lives have been turned upside down by the intense focus on Alfie and his situation,’ Mr Evans said. ‘Our little family, along with Alder Hey, has become the centre of attention for many people around the world and it has meant we have not been able to live our lives as we would like.
‘We are very grateful and we appreciate all the support we have received from around the world... (but) we would now ask you to return back to your everyday lives and allow myself, Kate and Alder Hey to form a relationship, build a bridge and walk across it.
‘We also wish to thank Alder Hey staff at every level for their dignity and professionalism during what must be an incredibly difficult time for them too.’ Mr Evans’s comments came as protests and vigils were held in Poland, Ireland and the Vatican for Alfie, who was taken off life-support on Monday following a drawn-out legal battle.
Doctors say he has a degenerative, incurable neurological condition, is in a deep coma and it is in his best interests to let him die.
Until last night, Mr Evans and Miss James were desperate to fly him to a hospital in the Vatican. A military helicopter had been put on standby at the request of the Pope, who met Mr Evans last week. But on Tuesday a High Court judge again refused the couple permission to take Alfie to Rome and his decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal the following day. Mr Justice Hayden urged the parents to disregard the advice of ‘pro-life’ campaigners who he accused of manipulating them and to spend what precious time they had left with their son. The couple apparently agreed with the judge, who said their only option was to work with medics to try to move Alfie from intensive care – either onto a normal ward, a hospice or home – for his final days. It came as health chiefs warned hospital staff to hide their uniforms due to threats directed at them after Alfie’s case. Calling for an ‘Alfie’s law’, Steven Woolfe, MEP for North West England, said: ‘The cases of Charlie Gard, Aysha King, and now Alfie Evans, show a dangerous trend of public bodies depriving parents and families of the right to make decisions they believe are in the best interests of their children.’