The family of Archie Battersbee are spending their last hours with the tragic 12-year-old before his life support is withdrawn at 10am today.
A last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to have him transferred to a hospice failed late last night, and Archie's mum Hollie Dance, 46, and dad Paul Battersbee, 56, were told they had exhausted all legal routes to try to keep their son on life support. Doctors at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, will turn off his life support this morning.
Archie has been in a coma since he was found unconscious by his mother in April following what appeared to be an internet game which went tragically wrong. His parents have had a long-running legal battle over the withdrawal of treatment through the High Court, Court of Appeal and, finally, the European Court of Human Rights.
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Hollie told the Daily Mail : "All I have ever asked is to get him to six months – where is the harm in that for them? They have spent a fortune on legal fees fighting me in court – money they could have spent on Archie’s care and others."
The mum-of-three said she had been subjected to online abuse when she continued to challenge the decision to withdraw her son's treatment, but there has been public support for Archie's family and the medical staff who have been caring for him since the accident. The family's fight has been supported by the charity Christian Concern, whose spokesman told PA news agency: “All legal routes have been exhausted. The family are devastated and are spending precious time with Archie.”
In a High Court ruling yesterday morning, Mrs Justice Theis ruled it was not in Archie’s best interests to be moved to a hospice, and the Court of Appeal rejected permission to appeal. The European court also said it would not intervene in the case.
The Court of Appeal judges said Mrs Justice Theis’ ruling in the High Court dealt “comprehensively with each of the points raised on behalf of the parents”. The judges said they had “reached the clear conclusion that each of her decisions was right for the reasons she gave”. They added: “It follows that the proposed appeal has no prospect of success and there is no other compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear an appeal.”
The Court of Appeal judges also said one of the arguments presented by Archie’s parents was “flawed legally”, adding: “It is also not easy to understand as it seeks to argue that Archie’s best interests have ceased to be relevant.”
Archie, an aspiring Olympic gymnast, he was fit and healthy until April this year, when he was found unconscious at the home in Southend-on-Sea. His mother believes he was taking part in a deadly online ‘blackout’ challenge – also known as the ‘choking’ challenge. Starved of oxygen, he was left with a catastrophic brain injury and has been on a ventilator since arriving at the Royal London in the small hours of April 8. Doctors treating the schoolboy for the last four months declared Archie to be “brain-stem dead”, prompting a lengthy but ultimately failed legal battle by his family to continue his life support treatment in the hope he would recover.
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