The 12-year-old fell into a coma after an accident at home and now the hospital believes he will not recover.
His story has been in the focus of the British media for the past few days Archie Battersbeeof a 12-year-old who fell into coma after an accident he had at home. Doctors at the hospital where he is being treated believe he will not recover and want to disconnect him from life support, while his parents even went to court to reverse this.
What has happened
Archie has been at the center of a lengthy legal battle since he was seriously injured in an accident at his home in Southend, Essex, last April. In accordance with BBC, the child’s mother found her son unconscious with a bandage on his head in their home and believes he was participating in an online challenge. He has not regained consciousness since and is being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, mechanical support and drug treatments.
The hospital judges that the child is brain dead and needs to be taken off mechanical support, and that in any case there is no hope for the child and he will die in the near future.
In fact, yesterday, based on a court decision, the hospital where he is being treated should have removed the 12-year-old from mechanical support. The decision was initially postponed as the boy’s family appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
His parents claim that stopping treatment would breach the UK’s obligations under Articles 10 and 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child .
These international obligations say that states must take all necessary measures to ensure that people with disabilities enjoy equal rights and that governments must do all they can to prevent the deaths of children and young people.
For this reason they have appealed to the courts, while it was expected that the mechanical support would be stopped.
The court’s decision
The country’s highest court on Monday rejected the family’s request to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision to remove the mechanical support.
Also on Tuesday afternoon, a three-judge panel of the High Court refused Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee permission to appeal, concluding that the previous court “got the right decision”.
The High Court panel said that while it “has great sympathy for the plight of Archie’s devoted parents … there is no prospect of any meaningful recovery for (Archie)”. They also refused to grant leave to appeal their decision to the Supreme Court, ie to allow the matter to proceed to trial.
They added that even if life-sustaining treatment is maintained, Archie will die in the coming weeks from organ and heart failure.
The family’s reaction
His family insists treatment must continue, saying the little one’s heart is still beating.
His mother, Dance, said Archie had a “steady night again” and has been in contact with doctors in Japan and Turkey who say they have medical treatments to help Archie recover.
In fact, he emphasized that the hospital was “pushing” him to end his life, adding: “It’s a shame, it’s absolutely shameful. It is this way forward in this country, that we are allowed to execute children. Because they have disabilities?’
She also told reporters that she was with her son 24 hours a day and that he was “making progress in many ways. He is taking three medicines, he is absorbing food, he has gained weight.” In the Daily Mail, she angrily declared that how could a boy who can shake her hand be brain dead.
A government spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with the family of Archie Battersbee at this incredibly difficult time. It is right that decisions about Archie’s treatment should be made by specialist doctors and the courts.”
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