July 27, 2017

Charlie will not be allowed to go home to die, Justice Rules

Connie, Chris and Charlie
After many public (and private) back and forths between the family and the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), Justice Francis announced unless an agreement can be reached for alternative arrangements by noon on Thursday (6am Eastern Standard Time), Charlie will be transferred to a hospice and his ventilator disconnected.

Connie and Chris have asked, through their attorney Grant Armstrong, to spend four days of ‘tranquility’ with their son before withdrawing his life support. GOSH was having none of that.

GOSH attorneys fixated on the idea that Charlie’s ventilator couldn’t make it through the front door of Connie and Chris’s flat. But that was just for starters. According to the Daily Mail

The court heard the hospital was insisting a ‘full team’ of paediatric intensive care doctors and nurses would be needed, along with a ‘health and safety assessment’, a special bed and ‘security personnel and a police escort’ to take Charlie home.

For one 11 month old baby who is dying.

The Daily Mail quoted a family friend:

‘The hospital have set the bar so high that in terms of clinical team for Charlie’s end of life nothing seemed good enough for GOSH.

‘The reality is Charlie is very stable, not in pain and rarely needs a doctor. It is therefore difficult to understand why Charlie could not die at home.

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