12-year-old British brain-dead boy Archie Battersbee, who had been in a coma since April, died just after noon on Saturday. The teen died shortly after the ventilator that kept him alive was turned off reports Sky News. To keep Archie alive artificially, a legal battle has recently been waged between his parents and the treating hospital.
Last Monday, a British judge ruled that the treatment at the hospital could be stopped. Archie’s brainstem was badly damaged and no visible improvements in his health had been seen since mid-April. The boy is believed to have fallen into a coma after participating in a fainting spell.challenge through social media.
Lawsuit
After the hospital announced that they wanted to stop treatment, Archie’s parents went to the UN Commission on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to the European Court of Human Rights. “Archie is my child. It [staken van de behandeling] should be our decision and not someone else’s,” mother Hollie Dance told the BBC. An emergency hearing was then held, but in the end the judge ruled in favor of the hospital on Monday.
“I am the proudest mother in the world,” mother Hollie told Reuters and Sky News outside the hospital on Saturday. She said of her son that he was „a beautiful little boy [was] who fought to the bitter end.” Archie’s older brother Tom said he hopes no family has to go through what they went through. “It’s barbaric.”