High Court to rule on new treatment for Charlie Gard
THE parents of terminally ill Charlie Gard were offered fresh hope last night as Great Ormond Street said “evidence of new treatment” must be explored.
The hospital said it had applied to the High Court for a new hearing in the case of the 11-month-old baby in light of information over the potential therapy.
A Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) spokesman said: “We believe, in common with Charlie’s parents, it is right to explore this evidence.” The hospital said the decision was taken after two international hospitals and their researchers contacted them “as late as the last 24 hours” to say they had “fresh evidence about their proposed experimental treatment”.
Charlie’s case will be heard before Mr Justice Francis in the High Court on Monday. The boy inherited the faulty RRM2B gene from his parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard, affecting cells responsible for energy production and respiration and leaving him unable to move or breathe without a ventilator. The couple, both in their 30s and from Bedfont, west London, want to take him to a hospital in the US, but successive legal attempts failed as judges in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London ruled in favour of GOSH doctors, who argued ge should be allowed to die, while the European Court of Human Rights declined to hear the couple’s appeal.
Under a High Court ruling, GOSH is forbidden from allowing Charlie to be transferred elsewhere for treatment.
Ms Yates has said her son was “not in pain or suffering” and she had been given hope by international attempts to come to Charlie’s aid, including from the Pope and President Trump.
She said five doctors, including two in England, thought experimental nucleoside therapy could help her son and that 18 patients were being treated with the medication.
A US hospital, which cannot be named for legal reasons, has offered to ship the drug to the UK to help Charlie.
GOSH said it would now be for the High Court to make its judgment on the facts. It described Charlie’s condition as exceptionally rare, with catastrophic and irreversible brain damage.
In a statement, the hospital said: “Our doctors have explored every medical treatment, including experimental nucleoside therapies. This is not an issue about money or resources, but absolutely about what is right for Charlie.”
The development comes as researchers at the Vatican children’s hospital implored Charlie’s doctors to reconsider allowing an experimental treatment to be used.