The parents of a desperately ill infant have fought hard to give him a shot at life – but the courts have ruled against them.
AT FIRST he seemed a perfectly healthy baby, a downy-haired newborn with all 10 fingers and toes and a cute button nose. But it was soon clear something was wrong with little Charlie.
He was listless and struggled to feed. His parents, British couple Chris Gard (30) and Connie Yates (31), never had the chance to take him home to the nursery they’d lovingly prepared – a crib full of teddy bears, a changing table stocked with nappies and a wardrobe full of carefully chosen baby clothes.
Charlie was eight weeks old when he was diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDS) – a disease so rare he’s only the 16th person in the world to have been diagnosed with it.
Doctors gave him little hope of survival and soon Charlie was on life support – and so began his parents’ desperate battle to save their son, one they documented on Twitter under the banner Charlie’s Fight.
They had a glimmer of hope when they heard of potentially life-saving experimental treatment in America and managed to raise £1,4 million (about R23 million) via a GoFundMe website to help cover the cost.
But his doctors and the courts were against them – and the final nail in their coffin of hope came when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in France ruled their son had to be taken off the ventilator. Any further treatment would expose Charlie (now 10 months old) to continual suffering and stress, they said, adding that the chance of the therapy being successful was negligible and it would just cause more harm.
Their decision resulted in a public outcry, with demonstrators protesting outside Buckingham Palace.
Even more unbearable was the fact that doctors at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital then denied Chris and Connie their final wish to take Charlie home to die.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 13, 2017 من YOU South Africa.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 13, 2017 من YOU South Africa.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
BALLON IN THE BAG
Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante says his Ballon d'Or win is a victory for Spanish football
IT WAS ALL A LIE
A new doccie exposes the Grey's Anatomy writer who fabricated her life story
'I WILL NEVER GIVE UP'
After her husband, anticorruption activist Alexei Navalny, was poisoned and murdered by the Kremlin, she became the public face of Russia's opposition. In this candid interview Yulia Navalnaya opens up about life on the run, her perilous family life and why she's continuing her husband's fight to save their country
AGREE TO DISAGREE
Trevor Noah on how his childhood squabbles with his mother inspired his delightful new book
PAUSE THE CLOCK
Researchers have discovered that the ageing process spikes at 44 and 60. Here's what you can do to slow it down
MPOOMY ON TOP
We chat to SA's most popular female podcaster about love, loss and her booming success
MY BROTHER IS NOT TO BLAME
Tinus Drotské says his sibling, ex Bok Nǎka, is the victim in the brawl with a neighbour that landed up in court
MATT THE RECLUSE
A year after his friend's tragic death, the actor continues to shun the spotlight
A LEAP OF FAITH
After her husband tried to kill her by tampering with her parachute she thought she'd never trust a man again-but now she's found love
THEY'RE MY KIDS!
This West Coast woman treats her monkeys as iftheyre humans and animal activists are not happy about it