EU court rules in favor of parents of brain-damaged UK baby to keep him alive

Chris Gard and Connie Yates are fighting for their 10-month-old brain-damaged son after medical experts in the U.K. want to turn off his life-support. The parents wish to take their son to the U.S., where experimental treatment might save his life.Their baby, Charlie, was born on August 4, 2016, and suffers from the rare genetic disease mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which causes irreversible brain damage. The child is currently on life support in a London hospital.

The parents believe that if their son travels to the U.S. to receive nucleoside bypass therapy, he might have a chance at life, but U.K. medical experts believe the experimental treatment would not help the baby. The parents have reportedly raised around $2.2 million to pay for this treatment.

British daily The Independent quotes the U.S. doctor as saying the experimental treatment for Charlie is “unchartered territory," adding this would be a treatment, but not a cure. However, the doctor did say the baby may be able to interact with his parents, smile and look at objects.

Parents fighting to keep their 10-month-old baby alive

Gard told the media that while their baby is still fighting, they are fighting for him too. He said Charlie has fought so hard to stay alive. He also accused the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London of keeping Charlie a “prisoner,” adding that their parental rights have been stripped. Gard added that since they took the baby to the hospital in October 2016, they have, in effect, lost him.

Gard and Yates approached the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after doctors and medical experts refused to continue treating their son and objected to him being taken to the U.S. for further treatment. The parents initially lost a legal challenge in April, where a high court judge ruled in favor of the doctors at the hospital who were objecting to the parents taking their son to the U.S.

As reported by ABC News, what made things worse for the parents was that the appeal papers reveal the case to be themselves versus the Great Ormond Street Hospital and Charlie Gard. He said he’s their son, how can this be right, adding that it broke his heart to see that on the court documents.

Human rights court rules in favor of the parents

As reported by the International Business Times, after taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday, a seven-judge panel has ordered the British government to continue giving life support to Charlie up until 19 June. This will allow his parents time to prepare for a full legal application for permission to take him to the U.S. for the nucleoside bypass therapy.

Meanwhile Charlie’s parents insist that the British government should not have the power to over-ride parents’ own decisions over their child’s medical care, with Yates saying that if they don’t get the opportunity to take Charlie to the U.S., he is going to die.