I thought they already did this but the parents refused? Or has this been escalated to a higher court or something?
As a lawyer id like to know what went wrong with the first hearing which required this to be done over – given that the sad outcome was basically inevitable.
I think everyone who has even loosely followed this case will understand this was going to be the decision made. Those who have read the original judgement knew it was the only viable outcome.
I will not join the growing body of people highly critical of his mother, but I will say that the police need to now step in and make people aware that threats of violence directed at the staff at the Royal London Hospital are **totally** unacceptable and action will be taken.
I feel for the parents, but this kids life is non existent. On the fb lives and pictures the mum posts, the kid if rotting away alive.
I just hope they get the closure they need, because the path they are taking isn’t it.
I’ve no doubt the family will appeal if they’re able, but hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the circus.
There’s a lot of anger and misinformation amongst the supporters and the mother in particular, I hope there’s no trouble as happened back in 2018 with the Alfie Evans case when the Dad whipped up a mob at the hospital.
Good now if only the story can end and Archie can rest in peace
Finally they can lay this poor lad to rest
This will seen as causing harm to Archie by those with no medical knowledge, when it is the very opposite. To be blunt, if Archie survived for long, he would need 24/7 care for the rest of his life, without question. His parents would have their son back in their care but they would never get the Archie they knew back again. They have already lost their son in that way. It sucks they have to let go but their Archie died a long time ago and was never going to come back, I don’t think they would be able to cope with the demands of 24/7 care either (not for long at least). Letting Archie die is the kindest thing to do.
This poor, poor boy. His terrible death has been unnecessarily prolonged and made a spectacle of. I truly feel for him, and one look at the parents gives you the idea that his short life wasn’t very happy either – it’s not certain at this stage that he wasn’t trying to take his own life. The more you read about this story the more concerning it is.
His mother, who has changed her name due to a string of violent convictions, and has had Archie in the news before due to an unusual and unexplained injury he sustained, has unfortunately chosen to strip almost all the dignity and peace from his passing.
His brain has already started to necrotise, causing his expert caregivers clear distress in keeping his heart beating, and on top of that they’ve had a circus of media and angry activists outside to deal with.
Just a horrible situation for everyone involved. I hope this decision sets a precedent.
THank fuck for that. Poor kid has gone through enough suffering in his life. There’s something totally suspect about the mother, and about the whole ‘Internet challenge’ thing that looks suspiciously like child suicide attempt, and the question of why.
Every story that came out about her through various incidents has been…weird, something not right. Like I find it hard to believe the whole eye/ear drop story. Not to mention her name change because of past violent convictions
It’s not a nice situation, but it was ridiculous keeping the boy “alive” at this point (“alive” meaning having a heart muscle continue to pump blood around an otherwise dead body).
RIP.
Feel for everyone involved, especially his clearly distraught parents. Still, this is the right decision
Thank goodness. What would have been next, open his skull and ladle out some brain soup for the parents? Would they believe the Drs then? Every cunt from the christian parties involved into tricking the family into hope deserves the worst possible outcomes.
They can’t appeal. That’s it. Absolutely horrific that this poor child has had to suffer so long but at least he will be at peace soon.
Now can the switch off be done swiftly and quietly before she can delay it or threaten anyone else.
This is the first I’ve seen of this case, based on the comments there seems to be a lot to it. Can anybody give me a quick run down of what happened? I understand the life support aspects, but what initially happened and why are conspiracy theorists being mentioned?
Brain Stem Death is a tragic thing. There is literally nothing left. Even if they could awake, they wouldn’t be “alive”. The mind and thoughts and hopes and dreams of Archie Battersbee is… gone. Keeping the body alive assists no one, when the mind is dead. I am not a religious man, but even I think the body must be let go, so the soul can find peace.
Sad but gotta be the right choice. Kids brain is literally rotting away.
Then bloody extremist Catholic groups need looking into. How preying on a family in this situation is allowed is beyond me.
Believe the medical experts not a desperate family. Let the poor lad go.
Does this mean he’s basically a corpse but machines are pumping his heart? Is it because his heart was revived at the scene of the (accident)? That the family think he’s still alive? Are they confusing how some people can come back from comas? That poor darling boy.
I hope that the mother gets the help she needs to understand why she had to let her son go. And that the poor kid can finally be left to rest in peace.
I’m interested as to what the hospital can do next. Are they now legally able to withdraw his life support, even if his parents continue to argue against that? Will they just go ahead and do that?
I’ve been thinking about this case quite a lot, it’s really upsetting for everybody involved. But the best thing to do is obviously to withdraw his life support – and it’s the best for everybody, even the parents, as they can begin to properly grieve.
I feel badly for the family, losing a child is a grief like no other. I say this from experience. Today is actually the anniversary of my sons death. I can’t blame his mother for wanting to hold on to any hope she can, and it’s so hard to let go. I can understand feeling like withdrawing life support would be killing him and I can understand she is not thinking rationally. No one would be.
That said, it’s time to let him go. Archie as they knew him is gone and never coming back. They want to let God decide, and in my point of view if it’s only machines keeping him alive, then God already made his choice.
Always baffles me that doctors are accused of “playing God” when they want to turn the machines off, but never when they turn the machines on
People who are claiming that “miracles happen” are misinformed. Yes medical science especially around the brain is not as advanced as we’d like, but we know when it has died.
When these “miracles” occur, it usually involves someone waking from a deep coma. When someone is in a coma, their brain is still alive, just damaged. There is a chance they’ll wake up, but when is not known, hence the “miracle” when they do wake.
This boy’s brain is dead. The organ has failed and is gone. It is decaying and cannot be brought back. The equivalent is saying “a miracle could happen” and Margaret Thatcher could rise from the dead — it’s not happening.
This lady seems to me like she may not have had the best mental health in the first place, and that she has a vulnerability to manipulation for whatever reason. The part of this story that strikes me is how this Christian organisation has swooped in to take advantage of her. I believe she is being victimised by evangelicals with cult like indoctrination practices. What better way than to separate your victim than to swoop in on this. And the more traction it gains, the more followers they get with the extra publicity. This family are having their trauma extended by a group who have absolutely no other agenda than to recruit.
Now all those who dragged on this case for overly long and let the poor child suffer should face some justice.
I’ve just read that the poor boy’s mother disagrees with the idea of dignity in death. I genuinely can’t understand that mentality.
If they are relying on a literal holy miracle to bring him back to life, I don’t see why the machines can’t be unplugged to encourage God their finger out…
Former ITU Sister here.
I have assisted in many brain stem death tests. Too many.
The testing is extremely thorough and is repeated by a second Consultant.
This poor lad has had his death prolonged for too long.
Enough.
Can’t believe this poor kid has been suffering unnecessarily for three months. I know some people say “any parent would do the same,” I sincerely hope that I would not. Poor Archie. Please let him go.
Once again, this poor young lad is brain dead and his brain has begun to necrotize. He’s never going to recover. He’s been dragged all through the press and his mother is just spouting a load of ‘Gods will’ stuff.
Even if his mother was able to keep him ‘alive’, she’d be spending the rest of her days sitting next to a shell, a husk. It wouldn’t be Archie anymore, because everything that made Archie himself has gone.
Standing around saying “If God wants him to die then he can decide that” is stupid beyond belief. It’s 2022 and we’ve just had a pandemic. Leave God out of this kind of stuff, listen to the science and the experts. As for the religious group taking advantage of her, they should honestly be ashamed.
If anybody happens to know the name of that religious group, please do let me know.
As for the apparent TikTok trend that Archie was taking part in, this is just more proof that social media is dangerous and that these social media ‘challenges’ aren’t only stupid, but also a lot of the time dangerous. Kids are easily influenced and the creators of these challenges never have to face any consequences when things like this happen.
32 comments
I thought they already did this but the parents refused? Or has this been escalated to a higher court or something?
As a lawyer id like to know what went wrong with the first hearing which required this to be done over – given that the sad outcome was basically inevitable.
I think everyone who has even loosely followed this case will understand this was going to be the decision made. Those who have read the original judgement knew it was the only viable outcome.
I will not join the growing body of people highly critical of his mother, but I will say that the police need to now step in and make people aware that threats of violence directed at the staff at the Royal London Hospital are **totally** unacceptable and action will be taken.
I feel for the parents, but this kids life is non existent. On the fb lives and pictures the mum posts, the kid if rotting away alive.
I just hope they get the closure they need, because the path they are taking isn’t it.
I’ve no doubt the family will appeal if they’re able, but hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the circus.
There’s a lot of anger and misinformation amongst the supporters and the mother in particular, I hope there’s no trouble as happened back in 2018 with the Alfie Evans case when the Dad whipped up a mob at the hospital.
Good now if only the story can end and Archie can rest in peace
Finally they can lay this poor lad to rest
This will seen as causing harm to Archie by those with no medical knowledge, when it is the very opposite. To be blunt, if Archie survived for long, he would need 24/7 care for the rest of his life, without question. His parents would have their son back in their care but they would never get the Archie they knew back again. They have already lost their son in that way. It sucks they have to let go but their Archie died a long time ago and was never going to come back, I don’t think they would be able to cope with the demands of 24/7 care either (not for long at least). Letting Archie die is the kindest thing to do.
Judgement is here if anyone is interested: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/barts-health-nhs-trust-v-battersbee/
This poor, poor boy. His terrible death has been unnecessarily prolonged and made a spectacle of. I truly feel for him, and one look at the parents gives you the idea that his short life wasn’t very happy either – it’s not certain at this stage that he wasn’t trying to take his own life. The more you read about this story the more concerning it is.
His mother, who has changed her name due to a string of violent convictions, and has had Archie in the news before due to an unusual and unexplained injury he sustained, has unfortunately chosen to strip almost all the dignity and peace from his passing.
His brain has already started to necrotise, causing his expert caregivers clear distress in keeping his heart beating, and on top of that they’ve had a circus of media and angry activists outside to deal with.
Just a horrible situation for everyone involved. I hope this decision sets a precedent.
THank fuck for that. Poor kid has gone through enough suffering in his life. There’s something totally suspect about the mother, and about the whole ‘Internet challenge’ thing that looks suspiciously like child suicide attempt, and the question of why.
Every story that came out about her through various incidents has been…weird, something not right. Like I find it hard to believe the whole eye/ear drop story. Not to mention her name change because of past violent convictions
It’s not a nice situation, but it was ridiculous keeping the boy “alive” at this point (“alive” meaning having a heart muscle continue to pump blood around an otherwise dead body).
RIP.
Feel for everyone involved, especially his clearly distraught parents. Still, this is the right decision
Thank goodness. What would have been next, open his skull and ladle out some brain soup for the parents? Would they believe the Drs then? Every cunt from the christian parties involved into tricking the family into hope deserves the worst possible outcomes.
They can’t appeal. That’s it. Absolutely horrific that this poor child has had to suffer so long but at least he will be at peace soon.
Now can the switch off be done swiftly and quietly before she can delay it or threaten anyone else.
This is the first I’ve seen of this case, based on the comments there seems to be a lot to it. Can anybody give me a quick run down of what happened? I understand the life support aspects, but what initially happened and why are conspiracy theorists being mentioned?
Brain Stem Death is a tragic thing. There is literally nothing left. Even if they could awake, they wouldn’t be “alive”. The mind and thoughts and hopes and dreams of Archie Battersbee is… gone. Keeping the body alive assists no one, when the mind is dead. I am not a religious man, but even I think the body must be let go, so the soul can find peace.
Sad but gotta be the right choice. Kids brain is literally rotting away.
Then bloody extremist Catholic groups need looking into. How preying on a family in this situation is allowed is beyond me.
Believe the medical experts not a desperate family. Let the poor lad go.
Does this mean he’s basically a corpse but machines are pumping his heart? Is it because his heart was revived at the scene of the (accident)? That the family think he’s still alive? Are they confusing how some people can come back from comas? That poor darling boy.
I hope that the mother gets the help she needs to understand why she had to let her son go. And that the poor kid can finally be left to rest in peace.
I’m interested as to what the hospital can do next. Are they now legally able to withdraw his life support, even if his parents continue to argue against that? Will they just go ahead and do that?
I’ve been thinking about this case quite a lot, it’s really upsetting for everybody involved. But the best thing to do is obviously to withdraw his life support – and it’s the best for everybody, even the parents, as they can begin to properly grieve.
I feel badly for the family, losing a child is a grief like no other. I say this from experience. Today is actually the anniversary of my sons death. I can’t blame his mother for wanting to hold on to any hope she can, and it’s so hard to let go. I can understand feeling like withdrawing life support would be killing him and I can understand she is not thinking rationally. No one would be.
That said, it’s time to let him go. Archie as they knew him is gone and never coming back. They want to let God decide, and in my point of view if it’s only machines keeping him alive, then God already made his choice.
Always baffles me that doctors are accused of “playing God” when they want to turn the machines off, but never when they turn the machines on
People who are claiming that “miracles happen” are misinformed. Yes medical science especially around the brain is not as advanced as we’d like, but we know when it has died.
When these “miracles” occur, it usually involves someone waking from a deep coma. When someone is in a coma, their brain is still alive, just damaged. There is a chance they’ll wake up, but when is not known, hence the “miracle” when they do wake.
This boy’s brain is dead. The organ has failed and is gone. It is decaying and cannot be brought back. The equivalent is saying “a miracle could happen” and Margaret Thatcher could rise from the dead — it’s not happening.
This lady seems to me like she may not have had the best mental health in the first place, and that she has a vulnerability to manipulation for whatever reason. The part of this story that strikes me is how this Christian organisation has swooped in to take advantage of her. I believe she is being victimised by evangelicals with cult like indoctrination practices. What better way than to separate your victim than to swoop in on this. And the more traction it gains, the more followers they get with the extra publicity. This family are having their trauma extended by a group who have absolutely no other agenda than to recruit.
Now all those who dragged on this case for overly long and let the poor child suffer should face some justice.
I’ve just read that the poor boy’s mother disagrees with the idea of dignity in death. I genuinely can’t understand that mentality.
If they are relying on a literal holy miracle to bring him back to life, I don’t see why the machines can’t be unplugged to encourage God their finger out…
Former ITU Sister here.
I have assisted in many brain stem death tests. Too many.
The testing is extremely thorough and is repeated by a second Consultant.
This poor lad has had his death prolonged for too long.
Enough.
Can’t believe this poor kid has been suffering unnecessarily for three months. I know some people say “any parent would do the same,” I sincerely hope that I would not. Poor Archie. Please let him go.
Once again, this poor young lad is brain dead and his brain has begun to necrotize. He’s never going to recover. He’s been dragged all through the press and his mother is just spouting a load of ‘Gods will’ stuff.
Even if his mother was able to keep him ‘alive’, she’d be spending the rest of her days sitting next to a shell, a husk. It wouldn’t be Archie anymore, because everything that made Archie himself has gone.
Standing around saying “If God wants him to die then he can decide that” is stupid beyond belief. It’s 2022 and we’ve just had a pandemic. Leave God out of this kind of stuff, listen to the science and the experts. As for the religious group taking advantage of her, they should honestly be ashamed.
If anybody happens to know the name of that religious group, please do let me know.
As for the apparent TikTok trend that Archie was taking part in, this is just more proof that social media is dangerous and that these social media ‘challenges’ aren’t only stupid, but also a lot of the time dangerous. Kids are easily influenced and the creators of these challenges never have to face any consequences when things like this happen.