Archie Battersbee’s father is feared to have suffered a heart attack or stroke just moments before judges ruled that doctors could stop treatment for his 12-year-old son.
Judges were told that Paul Battersbee had been taken ill outside court before the start of the hearing on Monday.
Barrister Edward Devereux QC, leading the legal team for Archie's parents, asked for the ruling to be adjourned.
He told judges that Mr Battersbee, who is in his 50s, had been taken to hospital and was feared to have suffered a heart attack or stroke.
But appeal judges refused to adjourn the ruling, finding in it that doctors can lawfully stop providing life-support treatment to Archie who is in a comatose state after suffering “catastrophic” brain damage.
Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the Family Division of the High Court and the most senior family court judge in England and Wales, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Peter Jackson delivered the ruling.
Archie’s parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, of Southend, Essex, had mounted their appeal bid after a High Court judge ruled earlier that doctors could lawfully stop treatment.
But they lost the appeal on Monday after the three judges had heard evidence at a Court of Appeal hearing in London last week.
Mr Justice Hayden had delivered a ruling recently after reviewing evidence at an earlier hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
He described what had happened to Archie as a “tragedy of immeasurable dimensions”, but said medical evidence was “compelling and unanimous” and painted a “bleak” picture.
Archie’s parents, who are separated, said he made errors and want appeal judges to remit the case to another High Court judge for a another hearing.
Judges heard how medical evidence shows that Archie is in a “comatose state”.
Barrister Edward Devereux QC, who is leading the legal team for Archie’s parents, argued at the appeal hearing that Mr Justice Hayden had not given “real or proper weight” to Archie’s previously expressed wishes and religious beliefs; not given “real or proper weight” to Archie’s family’s wishes; failed to carry out a “comprehensive evaluation” of the benefits and burdens of continuing life-support treatment; and had been wrong to conclude that treatment was burdensome and futile.
Judges heard how Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7. She thinks he may have been taking part in an online challenge.
The youngster has not regained consciousness.
Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests. His parents disagree.
Bosses at the hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, had asked for decisions on what medical moves were in Archie’s best interests.
Another High Court judge, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, initially considered the case and concluded that Archie was dead. But Court of Appeal judges upheld a challenge by his parents against decisions taken by Mrs Justice Arbuthnot and said the evidence should be reviewed by Mr Justice Hayden.
