The mum of a schoolboy embroiled in a right-to-life court battle says she “draws on the strength” of the parents of tragic tot Charlie Gard.
Hollie Dance was dealt the devastating High Court ruling on Monday that her son Archie Battersbee, 12, was effectively dead and should no longer be treated.
But she has vowed to “continue to fight” for her child, who has spent nearly 10 weeks in a coma after taking part in a viral online “blackout” challenge.
Hollie said she has forged a bond with the family of baby Charlie, who died in 2018, a week before his first birthday after a fight against a rare genetic illness.
Parents Chris Gard, 37, and Connie Yates, 35, eventually withdrew a High Court application to take him to the US for an experimental course of treatment.
Hollie, 46, told how she and Archie’s dad, Paul Battersbee, 56, faced a race against time to appeal the judge’s ruling after their barristers asked for a one-month reprieve. She said: “We’re in contact with Charlie Gard’s family. We draw strength from them, knowing that they’ve been through something similar.
“Our barristers have asked for a month for the appeal but we’ve no idea what we’ll be allowed.
“People don’t seem to be prepared to give him time, which is all we’ve asked for. But we’ll fight all the way. Until my little boy gives up the fight, I won’t give up.”
Hollie also revealed she was in contact with the family of 23-month-old Alfie Evans, whose life support was switched off in April 2018 after his family lost the final stage of appeal.
Little Alfie, of Bootle, Merseyside, was living in a coma for well over a year after being struck down with a progressive neurological degenerative condition. Hollie said she had also received messages from the family of Tafida Raqeeb, who was aged five when she was put on life support in early 2019 when a blood vessel burst in her brain.
Her family travelled to Italy in October that year after her parents won a landmark High Court legal ruling to take her abroad for treatment. She is still alive.
Hollie said: “I’ve had messages from everyone, they all have the same message, ‘Keep fighting’.”
Keen gymnast and martial arts enthusiast Archie was found unconscious by his mother on April 7 at their home in Southend, Essex.
His family believe he was copying a social media challenge in which participants hold their breath or choke themselves until they pass out. He suffered a cardiac arrest that starved his brain of oxygen, and he never regained consciousness. Lawyers for the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London, had asked a judge to rule on whether life-support treatment was in his best interests.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot ruled Archie died on May 31, shortly after his last MRI scans showed “irreversible cessation of brain stem function”, and life-support should be removed.
However, Hollie yesterday said her son may have been unconscious for just three minutes before she found him.
She claims independent medical experts have told the family it means little Archie could still recover.
Speaking on GB News, Hollie said: “The doctor we’ve got from the US is very highly qualified. He said Archie suffered 10% in the process, which is fully reversible.”
A spokesman for Barts Health NHS Trust said their “thoughts and sympathies” were with Archie’s family and that they were allowing time for the appeal.
