Archie Battersbee’s mum has vowed to give her son mouth-to-mouth if it means he can spend his final moments "in dignity" at a hospice. Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee have launched a legal bid to be allowed to choose where their 12-year-old spends his final days, after being declared brain stem dead.
They have asked the High Court to have the youngster moved to a hospice after the European Court of Human Rights refused their request to delay withdrawing his life-support.
Archie is currently being kept alive by a combination of ventilation, drug treatments and medical interventions, after being left in a vegetative state since he was found unconscious by his mother in April. He remains at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London, the Mirror reports.
Barts Health NHS Trust has said that they will not begin removing life-support until all legal issues have been resolved.
"If Archie is denied oxygen if and when life-support is removed I will continue to give him oxygen - I pray that the High Court will do the right thing," Ms Dance said. "If they refuse permission for us to take him to a hospice and for him to receive palliative oxygen it will simply be inhumane and nothing about Archie's 'dignity'."
"The whole system has been stacked against us. Reform must now come through Charlie's Law so that no parents have to go through this. We will fight to the end for Archie's right to live."
On Wednesday, the Barts Health NHS Trust explained moving Archie to hospice would come with "considerable risk". They outlined that because he is in an "unstable condition" there is a risk of even moving him within his hospital bed.
It explains: "This means that in his condition, transfer by ambulance to a completely different setting would most likely hasten the premature deterioration the family wish to avoid, even with full intensive care equipment and staff on the journey. We have explained this to his family."
The hospital adds that the High Court order from July 15, which has been upheld on an appeal, requires Archie remains at The Royal London Hospital while his treatment is withdrawn.
Christian Concern, a religious group representing the family, said the family has also applied for palliative oxygen to be given to Archie if and when life-support is removed. They noted that in 2018, Alfie Evans wasn't legally allowed to be given oxygen when life-support had been withdrawn, leading to the family giving him mouth-to-mouth.
On Thursday morning, Ms Dance told Times Radio said: "Hospital is obviously coming across to everybody you know - their deepest thoughts are with the family and everything they can do to etc, etc.
"This really isn't the case and I think that the letter that went out quite a 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."
She also alleged that the wrong MRI scan may have been submitted to the courts during proceedings. She added: "There are strong, strong doubts that the MRI imaging that was put across into the court was actually Archie's MRI.
"The MRI that was put forward had nine bottom teeth - Archie's got 12. So there are lots of things that the court hasn't had the chance to look at because we haven't been allowed to put any."
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