LP HOT NEWS: Charlie Gard is a beautiful boy whose legacy will never die

July 24, 2017

Hot news about Charlie Gard.

Charlie Gard is a beautiful boy whose legacy will never die.

Charlie Gard was born 4 August 2016. He is a British boy with a rare genetic condition known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

While receiving treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, decisions about his care were taken to various law courts, where a ruling was made that the hospital could lawfully withdraw all treatment save for palliative care.

This went against the wishes of his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates from Bedfont, London. They campaigned to keep him alive on life support and travel to the United States for experimental treatment despite doctors and judges saying it would not help and would cause him "significant harm".

On 24 July 2017, the parents ended their legal challenge.Therefore, their long-running and intensely fraught legal battle is over.

Many resources suddenly gathered, with about £ 1.3 million mobilized by 83,000 health care workers to help pay for empirical treatment in the United States, and hundreds of thousands of other signed petitions give him a chance.

It must be acknowledged that Charlie Gard brought the world together. Legacy from this beautiful boy is unexpected and full of human meaning.

Charlie's parents have leveraged the power of the media, along with finding an American doctor willing to give his son an experimental therapy called nucleoside that makes the legal struggle of their to be taken to take him to the US, beginning at the High Court on April 3, immediately capturing the attention of people around the world.

A truth has come to regret belatedly, their lawyer Grant Armstrong said that "Time had run out". They made their decision because a US doctor told them it was too late for him to be treated with nucleoside.

A whole lot of time has been wasted and Charlie Matthew William Gard with a sweet dream did not arrive.But perhaps as true as its reality, Charlie Gard is the hero in our hearts.

A High Court judge has ruled that life support can be withdrawn from a sick baby with a rare genetic condition, against his parents’ wishes.

Other info about Charlie Gard:

By January 2017, the parents and medical team had decided to attempt an experimental therapy with nucleosides (the precursors of DNA that the child's mitochondria cannot synthesise), but while the medical team was in the process of applying for ethical approval to do so, the child had a further round of severe seizures.

Due to the development of likely severe epileptic encephalopathy secondary to these, doctors withdrew their support for attempting the experimental therapy as they felt that it would not be in his best interests, and began discussions with the parents about withdrawing life support and providing palliative care.

On 7 July, the hospital applied to the High Court for a fresh hearing, citing that this was "in light of claims of new evidence relating to potential treatment", referring to possible new evidence on the benefit of nucleoside treatment. On 10 July, at a preliminary hearing, Mr Justice Francis made plans for a further full-day hearing on 13 July, asking the parents to set out any new evidence they had on the day before.

Hearings took place on 13 and 14 July, and in the latter hearing the US doctor, Michio Hirano of Columbia University, agreed to be identified, and the judge ruled that Hirano could evaluate the child and consult with the hospital staff; the judge said he would issue a new ruling on 25 July, after he had received and reviewed Hirano's report.

On 24 July, the barrister representing Gard and Yates withdrew their request to fly their son to the US and their challenge to withdrawing mechanical ventilation and proceeding with palliative care.

He said that Hirano, after examining the child and consulting with GOSH staff, was no longer willing to offer the experimental therapy because he saw no chance of it working due to irreversible damage caused by the disease. The barrister added that Gard and Yates had made the decision on 21 July but had wanted to spend the weekend with their son without media attention.