Archie Battersbee’s family has made one last plea to save the young boy’s life after Supreme Court gave his hospital the green light to switch off his life support.
12-year-old Archie was left hooked to life support after suffering major brain damage and ending up in a coma. The child has since been hospitalized at Royal London Hospital in the UK where his parents, Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance, are fighting to keep their son alive and give him a fighting chance.
Due to the boy’s extreme condition, the hospital bosses decided to end Archie’s life support after doctors confirmed he was brain dead.
The move angered Archie’s parents who took the matter to the High Court where a judge upheld the hospital’s decision. The parents’ bid to save their son was also rejected by the Court of Appeals when three judges ruled the hospital was allowed to turn off the boy’s life support at any time.
Dance and Battersbee then took their case to the Supreme Court only to suffer another major blow.
“The parents of Archie Battersbee filed their application to appeal to the Supreme Court earlier today. They were seeking a stay of the Court of Appeal’s decision to allow withdrawal of life-support treatment from their child,” a Supreme Court spokesperson previously revealed.
“Aware of the urgency of this matter, the court convened a panel of three Justices who considered submissions from the parties ‘on paper,’ in the usual way.
“Having considered the careful judgment of the Court of Appeal… the panel has refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.”
Archie’s desperate parents have now spoken out and revealed that their son’s life support is set to be turned off on August 3 at 11 am local time.
Dance also slammed the “brutal” decision and the Supreme Court judges who made the “shameful” decision to “execute” her child.
In one final bid to save her boy, Dance and her family plan on filing an urgent appeal to the European Convention on Human Rights before the 12-year-old’s life support is turned off.
“Our solicitors will be filing to the European Court of Human Rights. They’ve been given a strict timeline of 9am. Again, no time whatsoever” the heartbroken mom said.
“Every single court case we’ve had we’ve had no time at all, one or two days to prepare and get the whole case together.”
If the bid is rejected, the family will be forced to make quick goodbyes to Archie by his bedside at the hospital.
“Heartbreakingly, the hospital Trust have told us this evening that we cannot move Archie to a hospice. We’ve asked very nicely, in a very nice manner, ‘Can we take Archie to a hospice?’” Dance added.
“I think it’s every parent’s right to be able to take your child out of a very loud hospital for a peaceful, dignified – as they call it – a dignified death, which is what all these court cases are about, apparently, Archie’s dignity.
“Well, where’s Archie’s dignity and his rights now? He’s not even allowed a peaceful death at a hospice. So, our solicitor’s words were: ‘They’ve been very brutal and they refused a hospice.’”
Further elaborating the painful situation the family has found itself in, Dance said the hospital trust demanded they submit their ECHR request by 9 am and provide them with a copy as well.
“We want to make an urgent application to the ECHR, but the Trust are saying that that has to be submitted at 9 am, which gives us and our lawyers no time at all,” the mom explained.
“They also demand to see a copy of it, which they have no right to see. However if this does not happen, they say they will withdraw treatment tomorrow morning at 11 am. This is brutal and we are absolutely appalled.”
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