The mother of Archie Battersbee has said she has done everything she promised her son she would do as the family prepare for his life support to be withdrawn on Saturday morning. A last-ditch plea to the European Court of Human Rights to intervene in the case was rejected late on Friday, following a High Court ruling that he must remain at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
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. The 12-year-old has been in a coma since he was found unconscious by his mother in April and is being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments.
In an interview with Sky News, recorded on Friday, Archie’s mother Hollie Dance, of Southend, Essex, said she is “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.”
