The family of Archie Battersbee have said they “want something good to come out of this tragedy” as they vowed to call for “change”. The 12-year-old died on Saturday in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, after weeks of legal wrangling.
Archie had been in a coma since he was found unconscious by his mother Hollie Dance at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7. He was being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments.
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. In recent days, his parents had made bids to the High Court, Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights to have him transferred to a hospice to die, but these were rejected.
