Archie Battersbee's 'heartbroken' family given until 9am tomorrow to launch bid to move him to hospice

3 August 2022, 18:46 | Updated: 3 August 2022, 22:49

Archie Battersbee's "heartbroken" family have been given until 9am tomorrow to launch a legal bid to move the 12-year-old to a hospice - otherwise his life support will be withdrawn at 11am.

The 12-year-old's parents lost their latest legal application on Wednesday evening to postpone the withdrawal of his life support machine after the European Court of Human Rights refused to "interfere".

Archie's parents submitted an application to the European court in a final bid to delay doctors turning off his life support, which was due to be turned off at 11am today.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, the ECHR rejected the appeal and said it "would not interfere" with the decisions about Archie's care made by UK courts.

Now, Barts Health NHS Trust has said Archie's life support will be withdrawn at 11am on Thursday unless an application regarding the hospice move is submitted by 9am.

A High Court order made in July requires that Archie remains at the Royal London Hospital while his treatment is withdrawn.

The trust said: "Any application will be opposed on both a procedural basis and best interests basis."

Read more: Doctors delay switching off tragic Archie's life support as mum vows to fight 'to the bitter end'

It explained that Archie's condition is "unstable" and that it believes "transferring him even a short distance involves significant risk".

A spokeswoman for Archie Battersbee's family said they intend to file an application to the High Court to transfer the 12-year-old to a hospice.

"We think it is completely barbaric and absolutely disgusting that we're not even allowed to choose where Archie takes his last moments," the spokesman said.

"Hospices are well and truly designed for palliative and respite care. Archie is now obviously on palliative care so there is no reason whatsoever for him not to take his last moments at a hospice.

"The hospice has said that they will take him."

It comes after Archie's mother Hollie Dance said she "won't allow" anything to be done before his father returns to his bedside at the hospital.

"He's coming back again in the morning," she told reporters outside The Royal London Hospital.

"They definitely won't be doing anything until tomorrow because I definitely won't allow that."

Ms Dance said the ECHR's decision was "another heart-breaking development".

"The NHS, the government and the courts in this country and Europe may have given up on treating him, but we have not," she said in a statement.

"The whole system has been stacked against us... we will fight to the end for Archie's right to live."

But outside the hospital Ms Dance suggested the legal battle was over, saying: "It's the end, it was the last thing, wasn't it, and again our country have failed a 12-year-old child."

Archie has been in a coma since he was found unconscious in April and is being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments, at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.

His parents have mounted a number of legal challenge since then after doctors said he was brain stem dead.

On July 15 the High Court decided the continuation of treatment was not in Archie's best interests, and his parents approached the United Nations Committee for the Rights of People with Disabilities.

The UNCRPD asked the hospital not to withdraw treatment while they considered Archie's case, but the next day the NHS trust said unless a stay was granted by British courts they would withdraw life support after 2pm on August 1.

Archie's parents applied to the Court of Appeal for a stay on August 1 but it was rejected, as was an appeal against that decision made to the Supreme Court.

On Wednesday Archie's parents approached the ECHR and said the UK had breached the European Convention on Human Rights by not honouring the UNCRPD's interim measure, and asked the Court to issue an interim measure to prevent the hospital from withdrawing treatment.

This plea was rejected on Wednesday evening.

In a statement, the Court said it would not grant an interim measure to continue treatment and declared the parents' complaints "inadmissible".

The statement added the court would only grant such requests "on an exceptional basis" and "when the applicants would otherwise face a real risk of irreversible harm".

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As well as hitting out at the ECHR's ruling, Ms Dance also criticised a decision she said the hospital made to prevent Archie being moved to a hospice.

"In a worst-case scenario, we want to take Archie to a hospice, but the hospital have said that we cannot do that despite previous promises," she said.

"We have been told all along that this is all about Archie dying with 'dignity', and yet we are told we cannot take him to a hospice where it is quiet and we can spend time with him as a family without the chaos at the hospital."

She said they would "fight" to get Archie moved to a hospice.

"We've now got a fight to see whether we can get him out of here to have a dignified passing at a hospice," she said.

"I would like him out of this hospital. He came to this hospital to have an operation, this hospital failed him."

Barts NHS Trust said Archie was in "such an unstable condition" that transferring him to a hospital would cause his condition to worsen more quickly.

It also said moving him to a hospice would breach the High Court order made on July 15, which said Archie should remain at The Royal London Hospital while his care is withdrawn.

Archie Battersbee's mother speaks to LBC

Yesterday Ms Dance said she is "running on empty" after weeks of legal challenges but had promised she would fight to the "bitter end... (for) the right for my son to live".

Adding: "Inside I'm broke... at some point I am going to need serious therapy but I haven't got time to think about me at the minute, this is a serious fight for my son's life and I'm up against the biggest system and a trust."

"I am gonna stand here and say doctors do get it wrong," she said outside the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

"I'm saying that they've got it wrong in this case."

"Other countries are so supportive... they want to take Archie, they've been offering treatment, they've got high success rates," she said.

"Why is it so cut-and-shut that he has to die in this country because this country doesn't want to treat him no more?" she asked, naming "Tokyo and Italy".

Archie's family want the 12-year-old to be moved to a hospice if his life support is to be cut off, his sister-in-law, Ella Carter, said on Tuesday.

However Ms Dance said that their legal team described the attitude of the hospital as "brutal", claiming he had been refused a hospice.