The death of Archie Battersbee was described as "barbaric" with "absolutely nothing dignified" by a family friend. The 12-year-old passed away on Saturday after his life support was ended.
Archie was found unconscious in April after suffering a catastrophic brain injury. His parents fought to continue his life-sustaining treatment through a number of legal challenges.
The youngster sadly died on August 6 and family friend Ella Carter hit out against the manner of his death, describing Archie as having gone "completely blue" before he died in hospital.
With tears rolling down her face, Ella said: "He was taken off all medication at 10 o'clock and his stats remained completely stable for two hours. He went completely blue. There is absolutely nothing dignified about watching a family member or a child suffocate.
"No family should ever have to go through what we've been through, it's barbaric."
His mother Hollie Dance found the 12-year-old was found unconscious at home on April 7. He was being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments.
Speaking outside the London hospital, Ms Dance said her "beautiful little boy" died at 12.15pm on Saturday.
Archie's parents had fought a long-running legal battle over the withdrawal of treatment and in recent days made bids to the High Court, Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights to have him transferred to a hospice to die.
Announcing her son's death to the media, Ms Dance, of Southend, Essex, said "he fought right until the very end".
Speaking through tears, she said: "Can I just say, I'm the proudest mum in the world. He was such a beautiful little boy and he fought right until the very end, and I am so proud to be his mum."
In an interview with Sky News, recorded on Friday, Ms Dance said she was "pretty broken" and that the day had been "absolutely awful". Breaking down, she said: "The last however many weeks since 7th April, I don't think there's been a day that hasn't been awful really."
Ms Dance added: "It's been really hard. Despite the hard strong face and appearance obviously in front of the cameras up until now, I've been pretty broken."
She said the hospital had made it clear there were no more options and that life support would be withdrawn at 10am on Saturday. Asked if there was anything more she could do, Ms Dance said: "No. I've done everything that I promised my little boy I'd do. And I've done it."
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