Charlie’s parents vow to continue care battle
THE PARENTS of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard vowed yesterday to keep fighting for him to receive treatment.
Connie Yates and Chris Gard spoke near Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) where the 11-month-old’s parents have been in a protracted legal battle with hospital doctors, who said the experimental treatment that the couple argue Charlie should receive abroad would not help.
Calling for her son to be given the medication, Ms Yates said: “He’s our son, he’s our flesh and blood. We feel that it should be our right as parents to decide to give him a chance at life.”
She added: “There is nothing to lose, he deserves a chance.”
Ms Yates said the oral medicine they want for Charlie had an “up to 10 per cent chance of working” and had “no known major side effects”.
Mr Gard said there was no evidence Charlie has “catastrophic brain damage”, adding: “He should have had this chance a long time ago now. They said that it wasn’t fair to leave him on the ventilator for three months for a treatment they didn’t think was going to work. He’s now been left for seven months with no treatment.”
Ms Yates added: “If he’s still fighting, we’re still fighting.”
Two United States congressmen said they would table legislation to give Charlie and his family US resident status in a bid to allow them to travel there for experimental treatment. The Republican congressmen Brad Wenstrup and Trent Franks are expected to table a bill in the US House of Representatives today.
Justice Secretary David Lidington said the Government had “no role to play” in the case. Asked if it was right that judges could overrule the wishes of Charlie’s parents, Mr Lidington said: “It is right that judges interpret the law, independently and dispassionately.”
Doctors at the hospital have now decided to put the case back before the High Court today to hear fresh arguments following claims of “new information” from the Vatican’s children’s hospital.