A British court has held an online challenge to allow a hospital to turn off life support for Archie Battersbee, who has been in a coma for more than three months. According to doctors, he was diagnosed with brain death, but the family may appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Archie Battersbee, 12, was found unconscious by his mother after her neck was bandaged. What started as an online challenge led the boy to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with irreversible brain damage. More than three months after he was in a coma, the High Court of England and Wales allowed doctors to turn off life support, but the boy’s parents dispute this.
Called the “Blackout Challenge,” the challenge, which is going viral on the Internet, requires players to squeeze their necks until oxygen runs out and, as a result, they lose consciousness. Archie would have decided to join fashion, but it would be a joke that ended in a tragic ending.
In early April, Holly Dance entered her son’s room, found the boy lifeless, and quickly rushed him to the emergency room of a hospital in Essex, where the family lives. But after almost four months of fighting for survival, the Supreme Court ruled that doctors could turn off the machines that were still keeping Archie alive.
According to staff at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, the baby was diagnosed as brain dead, kept alive only by the use of artificial means, but countries denied that option meant the case had to remain. Delivered to justice.
The boy’s parents asked that Archie be on life support until he dies of natural causes, at a time “chosen by God.” However, the judge’s most recent decision, handed down this Monday, only confirmed a decision that had already been announced and was considered irreversible by judicial officials.
However, the lawyer for Archie’s parents, Edward Devereux, explained that the child will be kept on life support until at least 2am this Wednesday (the same time in mainland Portugal). The legal representative left on the table the possibility of the family requesting an extension of the deadline and said they were considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Andrew McFarlane, head of the family division of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, deemed it “no longer possible to continue life-sustaining treatment” after the decision was announced, with Archie just weeks away from death. As a result of “gradual disintegration”.
Archie’s mother claims the boy shook her hand more than once, but “no member of the medical staff observed any signs of spontaneous activity during the period of intensive observation,” according to court documents.
However, Holly Dance says there is evidence that Archie tried to breathe autonomously, and according to the family’s lawyer, the video evidence could be used to appeal the court ruling.
“As long as Archie is alive, I will never give up on him,” the boy’s mother clarified.
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”