Archie Battersbee’s parents were dealt a double blow in their last ditch effort to get him to a workhouse.
The family filed an application with the Court of Appeals on Friday, challenge a ruling that thwarted their plans transferred him to a hospice before his life-sustaining treatment was withdrawn.
The Court of Appeal confirmed shortly after 6:30 p.m. that permission to appeal had been denied.
The family later applied to the European Court of Human Rights about the decision, but the court said it would not intervene in the case.
In the Court of Appeal’s denial, the three judges concluded that the original ruling from Mrs. Justice Theis “comprehensively addresses each of the points raised on behalf of the parents.
“We came to the unequivocal conclusion that every decision she made was right for the reasons she gave it,” they said.
“Accordingly, the proposed appeal has no prospect of success and there is no other compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear the appeal.”
A spokesman for the European Court of Human Rights said it had received a request from Archie’s parents’ representative under Rule 39 to allow for “interim measures” in “exceptional” cases where it “suggests that the applicant faces a truly serious risk of irreparable harm if the measure is not taken”.
However, it felt that the claims were beyond the scope of Rule 39.
The ‘major and unpredictable’ risks with hospice relocation
Archie’s mother, Hollie Dance, said she wanted her brain-injured son “to spend his last moments” with his family privately, but the Supreme Court ruled the move was not in her favour. for Archie, calling the risk “large and unpredictable”.
The boy’s parents said they were aware of the risks associated with the transfer – with paramedics warning that Archie could be found dead during the transport – but they argued with the court they were prepared to do so. being sent away instead of being hospitalized.
His parents fought a protracted legal battle over withdrawing his treatmentwhich ultimately failed on Wednesday when the European Court of Human Rights refused to intervene.
Then their focus shifted to trying to get their son transferred to a hospice.
Archie Battersbee’s mother, Hollie Dance, outside the Supreme Court
The 12-year-old boy has been in a coma since his mother found him unconscious in April and is being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatment, at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
His mother says he was taking part in an online challenge that went wrong, after she found him with a lanyard around his neck.
Doctors who treated him said he was brain dead and continued life support was not in his best interest.
Barts Health NHS Trust, the company that runs the hospital, later said Archie’s condition was too unstable for him to be transferred.
