Baby Indi Gregory dies after parents’ failed legal fight to continue treatment

Indi’s life support was withdrawn and she died in a hospice.

A critically-ill baby girl who has been at the centre of a legal battle has died after specialists withdrew life-support treatment.

Indi Gregory died in a hospice on Monday morning with her parents Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, who had wanted specialists to keep treating her, campaign organisation Christian Concern said.

The couple, who are both in their 30s and from Ilkeston, Derbyshire, lost fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal in London.

A spokesman for Christian Concern said on Sunday that specialists had withdrawn her life support.

In a statement released early on Monday morning, Mr Gregory said: “Indi’s life ended at 1.45am. Claire and I are angry heartbroken and ashamed.

“The NHS and the courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi’s dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged.

“They did succeed in taking Indi’s body and dignity, but they can never take her soul. They tried to get rid of Indi without anybody knowing, but we made sure she would be remembered forever. I knew she was special from the day she was born.

“Claire held her for her final breaths.”

He said Indi has been moved from the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, where she was being treated, to the hospice.

High Court judge Mr Justice Peel had ruled limiting treatment would be lawful, and doing so would be in Indi’s best interests.

Her parents failed to persuade Court of Appeal judges and judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, to overturn that treatment decision.

The couple also failed in a bid to transfer Indi to a hospital in Rome.

Judges heard Indi, who was born on February 24, had mitochondrial disease – a genetic condition that saps energy.

Specialists said she was dying and the treatment she was receiving caused pain and was futile.