Parents denied right to take Charlie home

Judge indicates he will block attempt to take baby out of care unit after lawyer pleads couple’s case

Charlie Gard’s parents had their final wish frustrated when a judge indicated he would rule that their son should remain at Great Ormond Street Hospital instead of being allowed to die at home. Connie Yates and Chris Gard had wanted a “few days of tranquillity” with Charlie at their flat in west London before his life support is switched off.

THE agony of Charlie Gard’s parents continued yesterday after a judge indicated he would block their final wish to allow their little boy to die at home.

Charlie’s parents had wanted a “few days of tranquillity” tending to their terminally ill son at their flat in west London before his life support is switched off.

But a High Court judge indicated – at the end of another bruising and distressing hearing – that he would rule today that Charlie should remain at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) or else be taken to a hospice for his last few hours.

The parents’ barrister Grant Armstrong accused GOSH of putting “obstacles” in their path, preventing Connie Yates, 31, and Chris Gard, 33, from taking Charlie home for four final days.

GOSH denied it was being obstructive, insisting it had done all it could to accommodate the parents. GOSH said the ventilator Charlie needs could not fit through the parents’ front door nor “negotiate” the stairs.

Mr Armstrong said the hospital had never visited their flat in Bedfont, west London, and that it was on the ground floor. The hospital also said the severity of the child’s illness meant Charlie needed round-the-clock care from three intensive care paediatric doctors and four to six specialist nurses and that such a team could not be found anywhere in the country to attend to the baby at his parents’ flat.

Last night, Miss Yates pleaded for the right doctors to come forward to help them realise their last wish. Miss Yates said: “We promised Charlie every day we would take him home. It seems really upsetting after everything we’ve been through to deny us this.”

After another gruelling day, Miss Yates spoke of her dismay at spending hours in the High Court arguing over his final days when all she wanted was to be with Charlie. “I should not have to be here at court doing this,” she said. “I should be with him at his bedside.” Her partner stayed away from court and remained at the hospital.

In an angry exchange during a brief adjournment, their solicitor Charles da Silva confronted Katie Gollop QC, the barrister representing GOSH, pleading with her: “Just give them peace. Just give them peace.” On Monday, Miss Yates and Mr Gard informed the High Court they had given up their legal battle to secure experimental treatment for Charlie, who suffers from a rare genetic disease, in New York. Yesterday they went back to court to plead to take him home. Mr Armstrong said: “The parents’ last wish is to take Charlie home for a few Charlie Gard, above with his parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard. Miss Yates returned to the High Court yesterday, left, to fight for permission to take Charlie home to die days of tranquillity outside the hospital. Provided appropriate medical care is provided to Charlie, GOSH has no legal right to detain him in hospital.”

He said GOSH had not visited the flat, adding: “That they put obstacle after obstacle in the parents’ way is very unfortunate ... We struggle with the difficulties which the hospital is placing in the way.”

Offered the choice of a hospice or the hospital, Mr Armstrong said neither was very appealing. “It is the brutality of the child being taken from GOSH to the hospice for just a period of hours. The parents see that as being perhaps a notch better than death taking place at Great Ormond Street.”

Charlie has been cared for at the hospital since his diagnosis with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome that has left him brain damaged.

Miss Gollop said of the claim that obstacles had been put in their path to prevent Charlie going home that “nothing could be further from the truth”. She said: “The hospital has moved heaven and earth to make everything possible.” She said the “invasive ventilation” needed by Charlie “is only provided in a hospital setting”. For Charlie to receive such care in his final days at home would require the hospital to effectively set up an intensive care unit in Miss Yates and Mr Gard’s flat.

She said the hospital had searched the “length and breadth of the country” to find specialists willing to do the job – but none could be found.

Mr Justice Francis, who first ruled Charlie should ‘die with dignity’ in April, said he would decide today at 2pm where Charlie would be allowed to die. The judge said he would give Charlie’s parents another day to find a solution that would allow the baby to receive life-support treatment at home for days. “It looks like the chances are small,” he said. “But given the gravity of the situation we are in and the need to be human, I will allow another day.”

Mr Justice Francis had earlier told the court: “This is the most painfully difficult process for the parents. It seems to me the parents should be entitled to choose how the next days are spent and where. It surely must be in Charlie’s best interests that that time is shorter rather than longer.”

‘I should not have to be here at court doing this ... I should be with him at his bedside’