Judge’s sympathy for parents battling to stop medics turning off their tot’s life support as it battles rare disease
Connie Yates and Chris Gard have pleaded for help, saying they were running out of time with their baby
THE parents of a baby with a life-threatening condition are fighting doctors to let their son live in what a judge has described as one of the saddest cases to come to court.
Baby Charlie Gard suffers from the rare mitochondrial depletion syndrome with his parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard fighting to be able to take the seven-month-old to the US for treatment they hope will save the tot's life.
The couple are fighting specialists at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London who think the little boy should be allowed to die with dignity and have his ventilator turned off.
The case is now set down to be heard in April, with Mr Justice Francis saying: "This is one of the saddest types of cases that can come before these courts."
He added that Ms Yates and Mr Gard were "utterly devoted to Charlie and have worked hard to become expert parents in this disease."
Mr Justice Francis told the Family Division of the High Court: "The position is that, so far as the applicant [GOSH] is concerned, it would not be in Charlie's best interests for further treatment to be continued.
He said that GOSH's application was for Charlie's artificial ventilator to be withdrawn and for those treating him to "provide him with palliative care only", saying: "We don't know whether, and if so to what extent, Charlie suffers pain, although he is treated with paracetamol when various procedures are carried out."
The court heard that a second hospital in Spain had also stated that Charlie could not be effectively treated.
But in a heartfelt plea, mum Connie put pen to paper, writing to doctors: "I can't put into words how horrible it is to see court papers with our baby's name on them.
"Our son is being summoned to death."
She said she was worried that the couple's rights would be stripped away, adding: "We love our children with every ounce of our being and we want what's best for him.
"We have his best interests in mind... give him medications and make him better - isn't that what any parent would do? Find me one that wouldn't.
"He has an extremely rare disease, there are only 15 reported cases worldwide. We'd never heard of mitochonrdrial disease before, we actually high 5ed because we naively thought it's good that we know what's wrong - let's get him meds and make him better."
The couple are now raising money through a , saying: "We just CAN'T let our baby die when there is something that might help him.