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28th Jun 2017

Parents of little Charlie Gard lose fight to keep him alive

A nightmare situation for any parent.

Louise Carroll

The conflict between that of doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital and parents Connie and Chris has come to an end.

It’s been a distressful and miserable few months for the parents of 10-month-old Charlie Gard as they have fought tirelessly not to lose their little boy. Sadly the family’s grief was amplified as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected the plea of parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard, making the decision that Charlie’s life support be turned off and that the parents not be allowed intervene further.

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As you may have seen from our previous article on HerFamily, Charlie was born with a rare genetic disease known as mitochondrial depletion syndrome which causes brain damage and muscle reduction. Since only a few weeks after his birth, Charlie has been on life support in order to keep him alive as he cannot breathe by himself.

After exhausting all their legal options in the UK, Charlie’s parents took their case to the ECHR in a bid to keep him alive and bring him to the United States to receive a therapy called nucleoside. However, doctors argued that this therapy would be futile and would not help little Charlie but could lengthen his suffering.

Happy 10 month birthday Charlie #charliesfight #charliegard #charlieslemonchallenge #charliesarmy #parentalrights #

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The reaction to the outcome of the case was very much mixed on Twitter as this is one of the most complicated and heart-breaking decisions anyone could possibly have to deal with.

Topics:

baby,CharlieGard