Charlie Gard’s parents make final court plea
The parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard return to court today in a last plea to let their son go to the US for treatment. “If he’s still fighting, we’re still fighting,” the couple, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, said yesterday as they delivered a 350,000-name petition to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital where the 11-month-old is being treated. The case returns to the High Court today to hear fresh medical arguments and “new information”.
THE parents of Charlie Gard, the terminally-ill baby, said that “if he’s still fighting, we’re still fighting” as they delivered a 350,000 signature petition to Great Ormond Street Hospital calling for him to be allowed to travel abroad for experimental treatment.
Chris Gard and Connie Yates were joined outside the hospital by supporters before they return to court today to present fresh evidence from researchers at the Vatican’s children’s hospital about treatment they say could prolong 11 month old Charlie’s life.
The couple, both in their 30s and from Bedfont, west London, have been in a protracted legal battle with GOSH, who have argued that the nucleoside treatment they are seeking for Charlie abroad will not help.
Today’s High Court hearing was prompted by a letter from the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu hospital to GOSH stating that mice and patients with a similar, but not the same, genetic condition to Charlie had shown “dramatic clinical improvements” following the treatment.
Ms Yates said yesterday at Great Ormond Street: “There are now seven doctors from across the world supporting us, in Italy, America, from England as well, who think that this has got a chance of up to 10 per cent of working for Charlie and we think that’s a chance worth taking.
“He’s our son, he’s our flesh and blood and it’s our right as parents to decide to give him a chance of life. There’s nothing to lose and he deserves a chance. If he’s still fighting then we’re still fighting.”
Ms Yates said the size of the petition showed “there’s a lot of people agree with us and think what we’re doing is right”.
“We’re just two ordinary, everyday people. This could happen to anyone,” she added.
Mr Gard said the hospital was “fantastic” and the nurses there “truly amazing human beings” but “they’re not specialists in Charlie’s condition, the specialists are in America and that’s where we want to go”.
Contrary to reports Charlie “has not got catastrophic brain damage” and while his brain has been affected the medication he would receive as part of treatment in the US “can get into the brain and help that”, he said.
“He should have been given this chance a long time ago. They said it wasn’t fair to leave him on a ventilator for three months for a treatment they didn’t think was going to work.
“It’s now been seven months with no treatment, so he could have had it twice over.
“We’re not strong people but what’s kept us strong is our love for our little boy. He’s kept us going through this. We wouldn’t be going through this if he was lying there suffering.”
Charlie inherited the faulty RRM2B gene from his parents, affecting the cells responsible for energy production and respiration, leaving him unable to move or breathe without a ventilator. Despite Ms Yates urging the Prime Minister Theresa May to support them, the Justice Secretary David Lidington said yesterday that the Government has no role to play in the case.
“It is right that judges interpret the law, independently and dispassionately. I do not envy the judges who are having to take decisions on this,” he told Sky News’ Ridge On Sunday.
Meanwhile, two Republican congressmen,
‘We’re not strong people but what’s kept us strong is our love for our little boy. He’s kept us going through this’
Brad Wenstrup and Trent Franks, said they would table legislation today to give Charlie and his family US residency so they can travel there for the experimental treatment. It comes after a proposal by Pope Francis to give Charlie a Vatican passport so he could get treatment there and Donald Trump tweeting his support .
Professor Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said such interventions were “unhelpful”.
In an open letter from the college, Prof Modi said the UK had a “clear and compassionate framework” for making life-or-death decisions in cases such as Charlie’s and that “only the family, the doctors treating Charlie, and now the legal teams involved, know the details of complex issues that define his situation. These issues – unknown to us and all those voicing opinions – will have been considered very carefully in reaching any decision. This is why interventions by external agencies or individuals, no matter how well-intended, are unhelpful.”