The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Family fails in final bid to move Alfie’s treatment
Liverpool: Hospital staff tell of ‘personal abuse’ directed towards them
The parents of Alfie Evans have failed in an 11th-hour attempt to persuade judges to let them move the terminally-ill youngster to a foreign hospital.
Tom Evans and Kate James, who are both in their early 20s and from Liverpool, say life-support treatment should continue to be provided to their 23-month-old son.
Specialists disagree and judges have concluded that continuing to provide life-support treatment to Alfie is futile and not in his best interests.
Doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool stopped providing the treatment late on Monday after Alfie’s parents had lost two rounds of fights in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.
However, the couple, who want Alfie to be flown to a Rome hospital, mounted a “one last chance” challenge.
The couple said their son had confounded specialists’ expectations by continuing to breathe despite being disconnected from a ventilator and provided with only palliative care.
They said he had defied doctors’ expectations and his continued survival amounted to a significant change of circumstances which merited a review.
A High Court judge ruled against them on Tuesday and three Court of Appeal judges dismissed a challenge to that decision yesterday. Lawyers representing Alder Hey bosses said Alfie’s condition was irreversible and there was no evidence it had changed.
They said the fact he had continued to breathe unaided might have surprised members of the public but had not surprised specialists.
Lord Justice Mcfarlane, who headed the appeal court panel of judges, said Alfie’s parents were trying to take “one last chance”.
However, he said there was no prospect of the couple’s challenge succeeding.
Meanwhile, staff at the children’s hospital where Alfie Evans is being treated have experienced “unprecedented personal abuse”, health trust bosses have said.
In an open letter, Sir David Henshaw, chairman of the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, and chief executive Louise Shepherd said: “Alfie Evans has deeply affected us all at Alder Hey.
“There isn’t one member of our staff untouched by his desperate story.
“Yet in the last two weeks we have found ourselves at the centre of a social media storm that has included many untrue statements about our work and the motivations of our staff.
“All of us feel deeply for Alfie and his whole family and we continue to do everything we can to support them as best we can.”