Parents lose final legal bid in fight for Archie
ARCHIE Battersbee’s ‘broken’ parents last night lost their final court bid to transfer him to a hospice before his life support is removed today.
The 12-year-old’s family wanted to remove him from the hospital – where he has been in a coma for months – following a bitter court battle over whether doctors should stop treating him.
But a High Court judge ruled against moving him to a hospice as there were risks he could die during the move, without his family around him.
Lawyers for Archie’s parents Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee applied to the Court of Appeal and the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the ruling – but both applications were rejected last night. The rulings mean his lifesustaining treatment will be withdrawn from 10am this morning, when the court order preventing the hospital from withdrawing care expires.
A spokesman with campaign group Christian Concern, which is supporting Archie’s family said: ‘All legal routes have been exhausted. The family are devastated and are spending precious time with Archie.’
Earlier Archie’s mother Miss Dance, 46, said: ‘All our wishes as a family have been denied by the authorities. We are broken, but we are keeping going, because we love Archie and refuse to give up on him.’ Archie, who was previously a fit and healthy schoolboy and aspiring Olympic gymnast, suffered severe brain damage following an accident at his home in Southend, Essex, in April.
His mother believes he was taking part in a social media ‘blackout’ challenge. Doctors say his brain damage is so severe that he has no realistic prospect of recovery, and applied to the High Court in June to withdraw his life support.
Medics from the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, have told the courts that Archie’s brain has had no blood supply since April, and that his condition is likely to deteriorate until he suffers organ failure and cardiac arrest.
But his family have asked the hospital to give him more time and have fought the case through every legal step, including applications to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
In the most recent High Court hearing, held late on Thursday night, lawyers for the family asked for him to be moved to a hospice, and for the court to consider his possible treatment abroad.
But Mrs Justice Theis ruled yesterday that any move to a hospice or further afield would not be in the child’s best interests.
She said he should remain at the hospital, and said she was satisfied that doctors there would ‘enable him peacefully and privately to die in the embrace of the family he loved’.
The High Court judge said the family’s ‘unconditional love and dedication to Archie is a gold thread that runs through this case. I hope now Archie can be afforded the opportunity for him to die in peaceful circumstances, with the family who meant so much to him as he clearly does to them’.
The European Court of Human Rights then said it will not intervene in the case, meaning all legal avenues to move Archie have been exhausted.
The NHS trust has said it wants to work with the family to prepare for the withdrawal of treatment, but will make no changes to his care ‘until the outstanding legal issues are resolved’.
The family’s request for an appeal was considered by three senior judges – the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Moylan.
Archie’s parents had received offers of stem cell treatment from doctors in Japan and Italy. But doctors from the Barts Health NHS Trust said the treatments were ‘experimental’ and that Archie’s brain damage was too severe to be treated. They warned that moving him would be dangerous because of the risk he would die in transit.
‘Unconditional love and dedication’