Ian Patrick, FISM News
Archie Battersbee, a 12-year-old boy from the United Kingdom, passed away at a London hospital on Saturday after the hospital ended his life support. Battersbee’s parents had fought in U.K. and European Union courts for their son to remain on life support.
“I am the proudest mom in the world, such a beautiful little boy, and he fought right until the very end,” said Archie’s mother, Hollie Dance.
Archie was found in April with a “catastrophic hypoxic-ischemic brain injury,” according to a previous FISM News report. He was found with a chord wrapped around his neck in what is believed to be an attempt at a challenge from TikTok users.
Archie was soon put on life support, but the hospital treating the young boy eventually said his condition was irreversible and suggested removing him from the support. Multiple doctors overseeing Archie’s condition referenced brain scans which they say showed him as being “brain-stem dead.”
Dance and Archie’s father, Paul Battersbee, made multiple appeals to courts in the UK and the European Union arguing that their son was still alive. They presented evidence that included breathing without a ventilator and squeezing his mother’s hand.
The London courts ruled that the hospital had the right to remove the boy from life support at any time, and the European court refused to intervene. His parents continued fighting, with Dance saying that Archie’s death “should be in God’s way and in God’s time.”
In a last-ditch effort after failing to secure a victory in court, Archie’s parents attempted to secure hospice care for him by 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, August 4. The hospital indicated that it would oppose this move, even saying that it would be dangerous to move him at this time.
On August 5, High Court Judge Lucy Theis ruled with the hospital and denied the hospice care request.
“Their unconditional love and dedication to Archie is a golden thread that runs through this case,” Theis said of Archie’s parents in the decision. “I hope now Archie can be afforded the opportunity for him to die in peaceful circumstances, with the family who meant so much to him as he clearly does to them.”
Archie passed away on August 6 at 12:15 p.m. after doctors removed his life support.
In a statement through the Christian Legal Centre, which had been helping to represent Archie in his cases, Dance called for “an investigation” into the matter.
We were backed into a corner by the system, stripped of all our rights, and have had to fight for Archie’s real ‘best interests’ and right to live with everything stacked against us. This has now happened too often to parents who do not want their critically ill children to have life-support removed. The pressure of the process has been unbelievable. There must be an investigation and inquiry through the proper channels on what has happened to Archie, and we will be calling for change.
Dance also thanked those who supported her and her family during their legal battles with the hospital.