The life of a child who became entwined in an international legal battle
4 August 2016
Charlie Gard is born a “perfectly healthy” baby at full term and at a “healthy weight”.
September 2016
Charlie’s parents notice that he is less able to lift his head and support himself than other babies of a similar age. Doctors discover that he has a rare inherited disease – infantile onset encephalomyopathy mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.
October 2016
Charlie has become lethargic and his breathing is shallow and he is transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London on 11 October.
December 2016
Charlie spends his first Christmas in hospital with his parents putting a festive bib on the youngster and sharing a picture captioned “our little elf”.
January 2017
A crowdfunding page is set up to help finance trial therapy in the United States.
3 March 2017
Great Ormond Street bosses ask Mr Justice Francis to rule that life-support treatment should stop.
11 April
Mr Justice Francis says doctors can stop providing life-support treatment after analysing the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
3 May
Charlie’s parents ask Court of Appeal judges to consider the case.
23 May
Three Court of Appeal judges analyse the case and dismiss the couple’s appeal two days later.
8 June
Charlie’s parents lose fight in the Supreme Court – his mother screams as justices announce their decision.
20 June
Judges in the European Court of Human Rights start to analyse the case after lawyers representing Charlie’s parents make written submissions.
27 June
European court judges refuse to intervene. A Great Ormond Street spokesperson says the European Court decision marks “the end” of a “difficult process”. She says there will be “no rush” to change Charlie’s care and says there will be “careful planning and discussion”.
29 June Charlie’s parents say his life support will be switched off on 30 June. 30 June
They say GOSH has agreed to “give us a little bit more time” with Charlie. They ask for privacy “while we prepare to say the final goodbye”.
2 July
Pope Francis calls for the couple to be allowed to “accompany and treat their child until the end”, saying he has followed the case with “affection and sadness”.
3 July
Donald Trump intervenes, tweeting: “If we can help little Charlie Gard, as per our friends in the UK and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.”
4 July Bambino Gesu, the Vatican’s children’s hospital in Rome, offers to take Charlie in. 10 July
Charlie’s parents return to the High Court and ask Mr Justice Francis to carry out a fresh analysis of the case. Mr Justice Francis says he will consider any new evidence.
17 July
Michio Hirano, the New York neurology professor who offered to treat Charlie, travels to London to examine the little boy, discuss the case with Great Ormond Street doctors and other clinicians and examine fresh scans.
21 July Lawyer representing Great Ormond Street says new scan makes for “sad reading”. 22 July
Great Ormond Street chair Mary MacLeod says doctors and nurses have been subjected to abuse in the street and received thousands of threatening messages in recent weeks.
24 July
Charlie’s parents announce their decision to end their legal fight, saying: “We are sorry we could not save you.” Mr Justice Francis had been scheduled to analyse what his parents said was fresh evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court. But as the hearing got under way, the family’s barrister Grant Armstrong told the judge: “This case is now about time. Sadly time has run out.”