Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old boy at centre of legal life support battle, dies
A 12-year-old British boy, whose parents sought legal action to continue life-sustaining treatments after he was thought to be brain dead, has passed away.
Archie Battersbee had his life support switched off after having been in a coma for four months.
“It’s with my deepest sympathy and sadness to tell you all that Archie passed at 12:15pm today,” the boy’s mother, Hollie Dance, said.
“Can I just say that I’m the proudest mum in the world, such a beautiful little boy, and he fought right until the very end, and I’m so proud to be his mum.”
A British judge on Friday rejected a request from the parents of Archie to let them move him to a hospice when hospital doctors withdraw his life-support treatment.
After High Court Judge Lucy Theis rejected the family’s request on Friday morning, Archie’s parents asked the Court of Appeal for permission to challenge the ruling.
When that court refused to take the case late in the day, they applied to the European Court of Human Rights to intervene.
Archie’s care had been the subject of weeks of legal arguments as his parents sought to force the Royal London Hospital to continue life-sustaining treatments after doctors argued there was no chance of recovery and he should be allowed to die.
The family were seeking to move Archie to a hospice after the courts ruled it was in his best interests to end treatment.
The hospital said Archie’s condition was so unstable that moving him would hasten his death.
Theis ruled on Friday morning that Archie should remain in the hospital while treatment was withdrawn.
Ella Carter, the fiance of Archie’s eldest brother, Tom, said Archie was stable for about two hours after the hospital stopped medication.
Carter said doctors removed his ventilation before he went “completely blue”.
“There is absolutely nothing dignified about watching a family member or child suffocate,” said a member of the family.
“No family should ever have to go through what we’ve been through.
“It’s barbaric.”
Archie was found unconscious at home with a ligature over his head on April 7.
His parents believe he may have been taking part in an online challenge that went wrong.
