The father of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who is at the center of a life-support controversy, is thought to have had a heart attack or stroke.
The heartbreaking news was announced right before the appeals court decided that physicians can legally discontinue giving Archie life support, despite his family’s pleadings for it to continue.
The exact moment Paul Battersbee, a man in his 50s, became ill is unknown, but on Monday, a lawyer informed three appeal judges that he had been transported to the hospital.
The family had requested a postponement of the decision after the court was informed of Mr. Battersbee’s suspected critical illness.
However, judges dissuaded them, allowing doctors to discontinue treating Archie today.
Three months after sustaining “catastrophic” brain injury, the schoolboy is in a vegetative state, and doctors have declared him dead.
After his parents filed an appeal, a judge on the High Court ruled in June that the life-support system should be turned off.
They have promised to “not give up the struggle,” and Hollie Dance’s mother’s lawyer claimed today that she has observed signs that Archie has attempted to breathe on his own twice in recent days.
Hollie, who was spotted today attending court, is reportedly “disgusted” with the judges.
On April 7, Archie was discovered at his Essex home unresponsive with a ligature around his neck.
His family eventually became concerned that he might have been participating in a risky online challenge after what was initially thought to be a “freak accident.”
One of the judges who was deliberating the appeal, Sir Andrew McFarlane, stated that the medical team had observed “no evidence of life” in Archie.
He stated that Archie’s picture appeared in the extensive media coverage of the case, but went on to say that Archie “is no longer the boy in the picture.”
He described the man as having every bodily function currently kept up by artificial means.
The chief executive of Christian Legal Centre, which is assisting the parents, Andrea Williams, expressed her disappointment that the decision had not been postponed given that Mr. Battersbee had been transported to the hospital.
“I’ve spoken with Archie’s mother, and she is appalled,”
May God help us