We’ll make Charlie an American in bid to save his life
Astonishing new twist as US congressmen pledge...
CHARLIE GARD has been handed a new lifeline by US lawmakers who want to grant the terminally ill baby and his parents the right to move to America.
Congressmen in Washington DC propose to hand the Gards permanent residency so they can access potentially life-saving treatment, regardless of the decision of British courts in the controversial case.
High Court judges in London have backed doctors who want to turn off Charlie’s life-support machine.
But it is believed the British court rulings banning Charlie from leaving Great Ormond Street Hospital can be overcome if the 11-monthold baby becomes an American.
Charlie’s family face another gruelling High Court hearing tomorrow after a team of international experts said they had fresh evidence that the boy’s life could be saved by an experimental new drug therapy.
Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump declared their support for Charlie last week. Now Congressmen Brad Wenstrup and Trent Franks will table a bill to the House of Representatives tomorrow to bring Charlie and his family to the US. In a joint statement, they said: ‘Our bill will support Charlie’s parents’ right to choose what is best for their son, by making Charlie a lawful permanent resident in the US in order for him to receive treatments that could save his life.
‘Should this little boy be ordered to die – because a third party, overriding the wishes of his parents, believes it can conclusively determine that immediate death is what is best for him?’
It comes after a proposal by Pope Francis to give Charlie a Vatican passport so he can be flown there for potentially life-saving treatment.
Doctors finally bowed to global pressure on Friday to give the desperately ill baby another chance. After being handed fresh evidence by seven international experts, Great Ormond Street asked the High Court to reopen the agonising case.
Charlie is bedridden, suffering from encep halo my op at hi c mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, a rare genetic condition considered to be terminal.
British judges have ruled there is no evidence a proposed experimental drug therapy will save his life.
But, after a worldwide media storm over the case, international experts presented Charlie’s family with new evidence that gave the baby a much higher chance of survival than previously thought.
It led to Charlie’s doctors on Friday requesting a new High Court hearing to assess whether the boy’s life should be spared.
Charlie’s parents, from Bedfont, West London, are steeling themselves for a long hearing at the High Court tomorrow.
‘Should this little boy be ordered to die?’
THE fire truck came first. Then a police car. Then an ambulance. Three vehicles, sirens blaring, outside our house in a leafy suburban street in Washington DC, minutes after I’d called 911 to say that our child was unconscious. The paramedics stormed into the house, carried him down the stairs and out into the waiting ambulance, slamming the rear doors in our faces. Then we had to find a hospital we’d never been to, in a city we’d only just moved to, in the second-hand Dodge minivan we’d only just bought.
By the time we found our boy at Georgetown University Hospital, I was not my best self. He was lying on a gurney, surrounded by doctors stuffing a tube down his throat in order to put him on a ventilator. I rushed up to comfort him, to hug him and hold his hand. He was four.
‘Step away, ma’am!’ someone shouted. ‘Or you’ll have to leave.’ Minutes later, I was ejected from the emergency room.
The only reason I write about this now is baby Charlie Gard.
I know that, as a parent, you will do anything to protect your child. Your child is the most important thing in the world. But I also know that, at some points during our crisis – when we weren’t confident that our then-small son would survive the night – I did not help. And this informs completely how I feel about poor, tiny Charlie.
My son grew out of his condition. We don’t know why and nor do his doctors (he was treated at hospitals both here and in the US, including London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Baby Gard is spending his last days). We regard it as a miracle. We will never cease to feel grateful and blessed.
I believe in miracles, yes – but I also know this: when my son was ill, I was not the right person to take rational decisions. I was deranged – with love and terror.
This makes me strongly disagree with the Pope, President Trump and all those in their high places around the world who support the wishes of Charlie’s parents that the child’s treatment should continue, and offer their headlinegrabbing lifelines of false hope. This is irresponsible. The poor, beloved baby has irreversible brain damage. He is blind, terminally ill, and probably in pain. The High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have all determined that his treatment should be withheld.
It was only late on Friday that Great Ormond Street doctors – yielding to pressure from all four corners of the earth – decided that his life support should not be switched off, pending a new High Court hearing tomorrow to ‘explore fresh evidence’ about a doubtful proposed ‘experimental treatment’ advanced by seven medical researchers.
AS THE personal and legal agony wears on, I cannot fault the lawyers and the doctors closest to the case, who are all still so far of the same mind. Charlie Gard is a ‘futile’ case. This baby, sadly, is beyond a miracle. Charlie’s mum and dad, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, are not the best judges of his future options, as they are his parents. They are the worst judges, as they are his parents.
I feel for them more than I can express, but in the heart-rending case of the tragic tot that has gripped the globe, the considered verdict of Great Ormond Street and the courts must be allowed to prevail – even if this means that nature must take its course.