'HE DESERVES A CHANCE'
Mum’s heartbreaking plea over court battle to stop medics turning off her incredibly ill baby son’s life support
Charlie Gard's parents are now locked in a legal battle to save their boy's life
THE parents of a baby boy with a life-threatening condition have begged for a chance to save their son.
Charlie Gard, who suffers from the rare mitochondrial depletion syndrome, is at the centre of a legal battle between his parents and medics, with doctors wanting to turn off the seven-month-old baby's life support.
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But Connie Yates and Chris Gard have refused to accept defeat, now fighting the hospital to be able to take their baby boy to the US for treatment they hope will save his life.
Speaking to This Morning, mum Connie said: "We just feel he deserves a chance.
"(We want to) hopefully get the judge to see as much as we know, our belief behind this medication."
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The couple are now organising a passport and visa to get their seven-month-old baby to the US, should the courts allow them to travel overseas for the treatment, which remains unpublished.
Speaking about the the treatment, Connie said that it was natural, with no known side effects, giving the couple hope it would help their son's muscles strengthen.
But doctors have argued that the baby boy should be allowed to die with dignity.
The hearing, which has been referred to as the "saddest case ever" by the presiding judge, has been set down for April 3.
The case also left This Morning viewers in tears as they listened to the couple's emotional interview.
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Dad Chris said the couple had been "living in a bubble" around Charlie.
He said: "You wake up and in the first five seconds you come to and boom, it comes to you again."
But he said that the heartache was worth it to give Charlie a chance.
He said: "We are very biased because he's our son but Charlie is a special, special boy.
"We will never, ever give up on him."
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Mr Justice Francis told the Family Division of the High Court last week: "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He said that GOSH’s application was for Charlie’s artificial ventilator to be withdrawn and for those treating him to “provide him with palliative care only”, saying: "We don’t know whether, and if so to what extent, Charlie suffers pain, although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.
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Charlie was born on August 4 last year and initially seemed healthy, but his health quickly declined.
He has not been out of hospital since he was aged eight weeks and diagnosed with the rare condition, which is only known to affect 15 other people in the world.
Charlie’s parents are trying to raise £1.2m to cover the cost of the treatment and have so far raised more than £214,000.
reads: “We just CAN’T let our baby die when there is something that might help him.
“We won’t give up on him because he has a rare disease.
“We understand that rare diseases don’t get enough funding for research but why should that be a reason for a child to die?!”
Katie Gollop QC, for GOSH, said: “There is no dispute about the diagnosis. What is under discussion is whether the treatment being considered by the family, and which has already been considered and not adopted by Great Ormond Street, is a possibility at all and to what benefit.
“Whether this case depends on getting records, personally I have doubts.”
The court heard that the American hospital had “already accepted the child as a patient, subject to financial considerations.”
It is understood that the little boy was accepted as a prospective patient last week.
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