OUR CHARLIE IS STILL FIGHTING & SO ARE WE
Family plea to let US docs treat tot Top judges to reopen case today
CHARLIE Gard’s parents have made an emotional plea for the tot to be given a final chance of life ahead of a crucial court hearing today.
They want permission to take the dying 11-month-old to the US for experimental treatment as “there is nothing to lose”.
Mum Connie, 31, said: “If he’s still fighting, we’re still fighting.”
AS Charlie Gard’s future hangs in the balance today, his desperate mum and dad are begging judges: “Give him a chance at life.”
The 11-month-old has a rare genetic condition which specialists say has left him deaf, blind, brain-damaged, in pain and with no hope of recovery.
But today the High Court will consider new evidence from international experts who insist an experimental treatment could work for him.
Yesterday parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates handed a petition of 370,000 signatures to Great Ormond Street Hospital, calling on doctors not to turn off his life-support machine.
Connie, clutching one of Charlie’s soft toys, told a crowd of supporters outside: “There’s now seven doctors supporting us, from all over the world, from Italy, from America, from England as well, that think this has a chance.
“[This has] up to a 10% chance of working for Charlie and we feel that that’s a chance worth taking.
“We’ve been fighting for his medication since November, we’re now in July.
“He’s our son, our flesh and blood – we feel it should be our right as parents to decide to give him a chance at life.”
She added: “There’s nothing to lose, he deserves a chance – if he’s still fighting, we’re still fighting.”
Connie, 31, described it as “horrible, absolutely horrible” when they started saying their goodbyes to Charlie when they were told his life support could be switched off last Friday.
The couple want to take their son for treatment in the US and they are working with two congressmen who will table a bill to the US House of Representatives today that could grant the family permanent residency there.
They say that would allow Charlie to access treatment, regardless of the decision of British courts.
It comes after Pope Francis and President Donald Trump declared their support for keeping Charlie alive.
In an emotional speech in front of banners supporting the family, Charlie’s dad Chris said yesterday: “We just want to thank you all for being here. Over 350,000 people have signed the petition.
“Our special thanks go to, obviously America, and everyone in Rome, who are supporting us and believe that Charlie deserves this treatment.”
The parents said they were in contact with a girl in America with a similar condition to Charlie’s who was up riding a bike after treatment. Chris told the Daily Mirror: “There are 18 children on this medicine currently and they are all getting stronger. There is no reason why this drug can’t get in his brain and hopefully make him better.”
Connie added: “A girl was on a 24-hour ventilator the same as Charlie and a year later she was up riding a bike. We have got pictures of her. It’s a miracle what’s happening, the fact that these children can’t move and then they are up riding a bike as if nothing is wrong.”
The couple, from Bedfont, West London, have raised £1.3million in donations for their son’s treatment.
But they lost a series of legal battles as judges agreed with evidence from Great Ormond Street that the therapy would
There is nothing to lose. If he’s still fighting then we’re still fighting CONNIE YATES MOTHER OF POORLY CHARLIE GARD
not improve Charlie’s quality of life. Four courts have ruled his best interests are served by life support being removed and him “dying with dignity”.
But on Friday the hospital applied for the High Court to consider new evidence from seven experts in mitochondrial depletion syndrome, the incredibly rare genetic condition afflicting Charlie.
The treatment – nucleoside bypass therapy – involves a drug that replaces deoxynucleosides, molecules that are naturally produced in healthy people to repair DNA. For it to work, the drug would need to penetrate a membrane known as the “blood brain barrier”.
The seven doctors said there is “substantial direct and indirect evidence” that the therapy could pass the blood brain barrier to work.
Last week, clinicians from Bambino Gesu paediatric hospital in Rome said tests in mice and patients with a similar genetic condition to Charlie had shown “dramatic clinical improvements”. Yesterday Connie and Chris were joined by pro-life campaigners from the States including lawyer Catherine Glenn Foster and the Rev Patrick Mahoney, who led crowds in a guided prayer.
Gregory Mertz of pro-life organisation Citizen Go helped organise the petition and said it gained signatures from countries including Italy and Brazil.
Connie has urged PM Theresa May to intervene to support their case but a minister yesterday insisted the Government could not get involved.
Lord Chancellor David Lidington said: “We have no role to play in the Charlie Gard case, as would be the case in any other proceeding in court.
“I do not envy the judges who are having to take decisions on this.
“But they are independent, they know their duty is to decide the case on the basis of what they genuinely consider to be in the best interests of Charlie himself.”