Archie Battersbee’s mother releases video ‘proving’ brain-damaged son is trying to breathe on his own
Judges have ruled that doctors treating 12 year-old Archie can switch off his life support machine but his parents continue to fight a legal battle to overturn the decision
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Your support makes all the difference.The mother of a boy on life support has published a video she claims provides new evidence her son is still breathing.
Hollie Dance insists Archie Battersebee, 12, is capable of breathing independently of a ventilator and is involved in an ongoing legal battle to prevent his life support being switched off.
The family is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, which has circulated the footage and plans to submit it to the courts as evidence in their ongoing legal battle.
The video shows Archie's respiratory rate on a monitor in his hospital room.
The respiratory rate - set by a ventilator - rises from 14 to 18 before falling back to 14 . A red circle used to represent the lungs can be seen expanding and contracting.
It comes after the UK Court of Appeal previously ruled Archie could be disconnected from the machine.
Doctors treating the child at the Royal London Hospital in east London say he is brain dead and will not wake up, arguing that keeping Archie on the ventilator would not be in his best interests.
On Monday Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the Family Division of the High Court and the most senior family court judge in England and Wales, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Peter Jackson on Monday upheld a previously ruling by a High Court judge who concluded doctors could lawfully stop providing life-support.
Documents submitted to the court said medical staff treating Archie had seen "no signs of life". His parents, who are separated, have fought a legal battle to keep Archie’s ventilator turned on.
A lawyer representing them said after the appeal ruling that their fight would continue.
“Archie‘s family are devastated,” said David Foster, who is based at law firm Moore Barlow.
“The family maintain 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.”
Archie’s father, Paul Battersbee, who is in his 50s, was unable to attend the hearing in central London after falling ill and being taken to hospital.
A spokesperson for the family said he spent the night on a ward but was "OK".
At previous hearing, Mr Justice Hayden described what had happened to Archie as a “tragedy of immeasurable dimensions”, but said medical evidence was “compelling and unanimous” and painted a “bleak” picture.
Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on 7 April and he has not regained consciousness since. She thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.
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