For months, a British Couple is fighting, that his terminally ill Baby may continue to live. The attending Doctors say, is the continuation of the treatment meant for little Charlie is just the continuation of suffering.
Fight for your son: Connie Yates, and Chris Gard
On 4. August Charlie Gard is a year old – when he experienced this day. Because Charlie is dying; he is only still on life support. The physicians say his case was hopeless. For months, Charlie’s parents are fighting for the continuation of the treatment, but the judges, who were called by the parents, are of the same opinion as the Doctors. The emotional roller coaster of the parents and their supporters continues in this week: The case is rolled up before the court again.
Charlie has MDDS (mitochondrial DNA-depletion syndrome), a rare genetic disease, which damages the cells of the body. More and more organs may stop working In October last year, the Baby’s breath got in trouble; in December, the first damage of the brain came to – Charlie could no longer hear, no longer breathe on their own. In the meantime, he can no longer move or Express what he feels. He is artificially fed. When he opens his eyes, no one knows whether he is still true to what he sees. The Doctors at Great Ormond Street hospital for children in London say they could do nothing more for him.
An unproven therapy
Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates, and Chris Gard, don’t want to give up her son. Although MDDS is considered to be incurable, but the Couple puts his last hopes on American Doctors, investigating an experimental treatment called nucleoside therapy. The researchers managed to reduce on laboratory mice, the symptoms of MDDS; also, the condition of sick children, due to the application of the therapy improved. However, there is still no experience with the specific type of the disease, at the Charlie suffers. In an Interview with the BBC, one of the Doctors, who wished to remain anonymous said, the therapy to be promising, not a cure of the disease. Maybe Charlie could operate after that, “inter, smile, look at things”. The therapy enter but in any case, uncharted waters.
Great Ormond Street children’s hospital to a terminally ill child
So far, the London-based Doctors of a treatment on the basis of a largely unknown, untested therapy not wanted to agree to. Instead, they wanted to turn off the life support machines and the Baby, you gently die, to not suffer needlessly. Normally, some in Britain – as in other countries – health professionals with the parents of terminally ill children are informed of the progress or the end of their medical efforts. If you come to an agreement, often the British justice system, which then tries to decide in the best interest of the child. Charlie’s parents could not or would not accept the decision of the physician. Since then, lawyers have the word.
Doctors, lawyers, and a desperate Couple
The Supreme court of the UK upheld the judgment of the High Court in London that the Doctors are likely to leave in the interest of the baby to the ventilator. Before the European court of human rights, the desperate parents reached a preliminary injunction, after which the child should provisionally be alive. Ultimately, the European court decided against the will of the parents: The journey to a treatment in the USA would cause Charlie to avoid unnecessary Suffering.
Now, the Pope intervened and called for help for the Sick as a “duty of love”. The children’s hospital of the Vatican, “Bambino Gesú” agreed Charlie. The transfer to Rome did not materialize, however, because the Catholic doctors refused, a binding pledge that they would if necessary switch off the life support machines.
A last hope
On the Website charliesfight.org the parents describe the struggle for the continuation of the treatment of your son, and ask for donations to be able to Charlie in the USA. So far, more than 1.3 million pounds. Also on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, the parents are active.
A new development of Charlie’s parents and their supporters are now hoping The doctors at the Great Ormond Street hospital want that the case will be decided “in the light of new findings about a possible treatment”. You opinion of the children were sick house of the Vatican, and a further clinic in a foreign country. Unpublished study give results, – says the mother of the baby – Charlie is a ten percent Chance of successful treatment. Nicholas Francis, the judge, the was first, followed by the arguments of the British doctors gave the parents until Wednesday afternoon, new documents. On Thursday, the case should be re-negotiated.
Baby Charlie: a 10 percent Chance for a successful treatment
But judge Francis warned that the documents submitted would have to be “new and compelling” in order to make the previous decisions will be reversed. “There is no one who wanted to save Charlie,” he said, but wants to decide this time too factual: “I didn’t decide on the Basis of a tweet or on the Basis of what is said in the media.” His decision, the judge said, he may manifest immediately.