Our beautiful little boy has gone...
Tragic tot dies just before birthday
CHARLIE Gard died yesterday, days before his first birthday.
Parents Connie Yates, 31, and Chris Gard, 32, were at his side as his life support was switched off.
Heartbroken Connie said: “Our beautiful little boy has gone.”
Charlie’s parents and loved ones at this very sad time.”
Chris and Connie’s battle to exhaust every option for helping their beloved boy had put them on a collision course with his doctors, who said there was no way Charlie would benefit from the trial treatment.
A series of court hearings wrapped up this week when new evidence revealed Charlie now had no chance of getting better.
Brain scans ordered by the judge were said to “make sad reading”, showing irreversible brain damage. The anguished parents decided to let their “absolute warrior” go and halted the fight. Chris paid tribute to his son in a statement read on the steps of the court. He said: “Mummy and Daddy love you so much Charlie, we always have and we always will and we are so sorry that we couldn’t save you. We had the chance but we weren’t allowed to give you that chance. Sweet dreams baby. Sleep tight, our beautiful little boy.” But they said they believed he might have been saved. Chris said time was “wasted” and “had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy boy”. Chris and Connie raised £1.3million to fly him to the US after an appeal in January. But Charlie’s medics disagreed with the bid and in March hospital bosses asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that life-support treatment should stop.
In April, the decision that he be allowed to die with dignity was upheld by the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
DENIED
But Connie and Chris fought to get the case reopened this month, after a US neurosurgeon offered a never-before-tried therapy.
Without having seen Charlie or his full medical files, Dr Michio Hirano claimed there was up to a leaving Connie and Chris, of Bedfont, 50% chance of improving his condi- West London, with no choice but to tion. But after coming to London and say goodbye to their boy. meeting Great Ormond Street staff, he However, the couple said that in not this week withdrew his claims – being able to take Charlie home to die, they were denied their final wish to spend more time with him, with “no hospital, no lawyers, no courts, no media”.
Connie said: “Most people won’t ever have to go through what we have been through, we’ve had no control over our son’s life and no control over our son’s death.”
Great Ormond Street had said on Thursday: “We regret that differences between Charlie’s doctors and his parents have had to be played out in court over such a protracted period. It has been a painful and distressing process for all. Charlie’s parents have tirelessly advocated for what they believed was right for their son and nobody could fault them for doing so.”