Terminally ill boy may be sent home
COURT: A judge last night ruled that terminally ill Alfie Evans may be allowed home, but will not be allowed to go to Rome for further treatment.
Mr Justice Hayden described the 23-month-old at the centre of a life-support battle as a “warrior”, but said the case had now reached its “final chapter”.
There is virtually nothing of (Alfie’s) brain left. High Court Judge Mr Justice Hayden dismisses claims Alfie Evans is getting better.
A JUDGE has ruled that terminally ill Alfie Evans may be allowed home, but will not be allowed to go to Rome for further treatment.
Mr Justice Hayden described the 23-month-old at the centre of a life-support battle as “courageous” and a “warrior”, but the case had now reached its “final chapter”, he told a High Court hearing in Manchester.
He rejected claims by Alfie’s father, Tom Evans, 21, that his son was “significantly better” than first thought because he had now been breathing unaided for 20 hours after doctors first withdrew life support on Monday night at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Instead, the judge said the best Alfie’s parents could hope for was to “explore” the options of removing him from intensive care either to a ward, a hospice or his home.
But a doctor treating Alfie, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that for Alfie to be allowed home would require a “sea change” in attitude from the child’s family, and they feared that in the “worst case” they would try to take the boy abroad.
Mr Justice Hayden ruled out his family’s wishes to take the child to the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, following interventions from the Pope and the Italian authorities.
Alfie has been at the centre of a life-or-death treatment battle, with his parents, Mr Evans and Kate James, trying to block doctors from withdrawing life support in a sometimes acrimonious six-month dispute which has seen a series of court battles.
A “last-ditch appeal” in which the Italian Ambassador granted Alfie citizenship of Italy in order to take him to Rome for treatment failed on Monday.
And a late-night court hearing heard by telephone by Mr Justice Hayden and lawyers for both sides confirmed his earlier decision permitting life support, helping Alfie to breathe, to be withdrawn.
During another three-hour hearing on Tuesday at the Family Division of the High Court sitting in Manchester, Paul Diamond, from the Christian Legal Centre representing the parents, suggested the alleged change in the position meant the court should reconsider its decision on allowing Alfie to travel abroad.
He handed the court a witness statement from Mr Evans in which he suggested his son’s health was “significantly better” than first thought since life support was withdrawn at 9.17pm last night, as he was continuing to live and breathe.
But Mr Justice Hayden said in his ruling: “The sad truth is that it is not.
“With little, indeed no hesitation, I reject that.
“The brain cannot regenerate itself and there is virtually nothing of his brain left.
“There is, in truth, with great respect to the efforts of Mr Diamond, no substance to this application, which represents, at least within the court process, the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy.”
Instead the judge said Alfie’s continued life was a “shaft of light” and a “special opportunity” for his parents to spend time with him – not the time for more legal manoeuvres.
Medics say he has a degenerative condition destroying his brain, and it is in his best interests to withdraw life support.
But his parents have fought a long battle to ask the courts to allow them to take him abroad.