High Court Rules Archie Battersbee Cannot Be Moved To Hospice
Archie Battersbee ’s parents have lost a High Court bid to have him moved to a hospice from the hospital to die.
Archie's mum Hollie Dance has previously spoken about the 'worst case scenario' of her son being moved to a hospice in recent days as she fights to keep her son alive.
On Wednesday (3 August) Ms Dance claimed that The Royal London Hospital, where the 12-year-old currently is, refused a request from his family for him to be moved to hospice care.
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This alleged refusal came after Ms Dance revealed that her son's life support was set to be turned off on Wednesday (3 August) at 11.00am after attempting to overturn the High Court's ruling that further treatment would be futile after he suffered catastrophic brain damage.
Ms Dance and Archie’s dad, Paul Battersbee, then submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to postpone the withdrawal of his life support.
On Wednesday, Ms Dance said a request has been made for Archie to go to a hospice in a ‘worst case scenario’ but the hospital ‘brutally’ said no.
“The courts are going on and really focusing in on the word dignity," she explained.
“What is dignified in dying in a busy hospital room full of noise with the door open, people coming in and out continuously, when Archie could be in a very peaceful garden with squirrels and wildlife running around to have his life support withdrawn there.”
Ms Dance's son has not woken up from a coma after she discovered him unconscious in their home in Southend, Essex, in April. It is believed that Archie was taking part in an online challenge when he was injured.
In a new interview with Times Radio this morning, Ms Dance said that the hospital previously told the family they would be able to move Archie to a hospice but then they 'just totally went back on their word'.
“Hospital are obviously coming across to everybody you know – their deepest thoughts are with the family and everything they can do to etc, etc," she said.
“This really isn’t the case and I think that the letter that went out quite sort of late yesterday evening saying that just again, a bit of a blackmailing letter, you know: ‘You’ve got till nine o’clock’, leaving the lawyers again under pressure, which is what this hospital has done from day one of being here really. Everything’s just been so high-pressured."
On 15 July, the High Court ruled that Archie was 'brain stem' dead and that it was not in his best interests to keep him on life support.
Mr Justice Hayden described Archie's situation as a 'tragedy of immeasurable dimensions' after he was found unconscious at home.
But he said that there was evidence of 'significant injury' to 'multiple areas' of Archie's brain that painted a 'bleak' prognosis for the possibility of a recovery.
Hollie previously shared evidence that she claimed was proof her son was trying to breathe on his own.
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