Archie Battersbee: Court rules ability to stop life-support treatment

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Young Archie was found unconscious at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7. He had suffered “catastrophic” brain damage and has been receiving treatment at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel since the accident.

He has not regained consciousness since his mother found him, shortly after he attempted what Hollie Dance believes to be an online challenge.

Medical staff at the east London facility believe Archie to be “brain-stem dead”, and the Barts Health NHS Trust that runs the hospital took Archie’s case to the courts to rule on the 12-year-old’s best interests.

On Monday, Court of Appeal judges rejected the appeal from Archie’s parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, after the High Court ruled doctors could lawfully stop treatment.

Speaking after the appeal was rejected, Ms Dance described feeling “numb” and unable to “process” the verdict.

She told TalkTV she will “fight to the end”, and she “100 percent” believes “he is still there”.

Mr Justice Hayden, delivering his ruling earlier this month, called Archie’s situation a “tragedy of immeasurable dimensions”, adding: “The fight, if it can properly be characterised as such, is no longer in Archie’s control.

“The damage to his brain has deprived him of any bodily autonomy. Eventually, Archie’s organs will fail and ultimately his heart will stop.”

He continued: “There is unfortunately no treatment possible to reverse the damage that has been caused to Archie’s brain. There can be no hope at all of recovery.”

On Monday, Court of Appeal judge Sir Andrew McFarlane upheld Mr Justice Hayden’s ruling, saying: “While it is most sadly correct that it was the medical evidence that ultimately drove the outcome of the judge’s best interests determination, he [Hayden] had clearly taken full account of the countervailing factors.

“Those factors – but in particular Archie’s wishes and feelings and religious beliefs –were insufficient to avoid a finding that the continuation of life-supporting treatment was no longer in the best interests of this moribund child who is weeks away from a death which will otherwise occur from a further deterioration and then a failure of his organs followed by a failure of his heart.”

The Court of Appeal had been asked to delay their ruling after Mr Battersbee took ill outside the courts, but judges insisted it was in the best interests of Archie to deliver the verdict.

The family were given a 48-hour delay to the ending of treatment to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

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David Foster, of Moore Barlow LLP, said on behalf of Mr Battersbee and Ms Dance that the family “are devastated by this decision” and would appeal to the ECHR in Strasbourg or the United Nations.

He added: “They argued that their beliefs and values, and their son’s, should get some more weighting in the court’s decision, but that didn’t happen today.

“Despite this, we are encouraged by new evidence of Archie breathing and intend to apply back to Mr Justice Hayden to review the best interest decision.

“The family maintains that fair and proper balance was not carried out when looking at Archie’s best interests and will appeal directly to the European Court of Human Rights or the United Nations as a result.

“My thoughts remain with the family and Archie’s father Paul Battersbee, who suffered a suspected heart attack or stroke shortly before the Court’s decision.”

Edward Devereux QC, representing Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee, said that the family would apply for another High Court hearing based on “new evidence”.

He said that Ms Dance had seen her son, who is hooked up to a ventilator, try to take breaths himself, independent of the machine, on Friday and Saturday.

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