WASHINGTON – There is new hope that 11-month-old Charlie Gard, suffering in the U.K. from a rare, life-threatening disease, will be allowed to go abroad to receive new or experimental treatment.
The child is under a death sentence from U.K. courts that have ruled his life support must be withdrawn.
But a judge on Monday heard evidence from his parents and the hospital where the child is being treated. The hospital, backed by a court, is recommending that Charlie’s life support be halted but is preventing him from being transferred.
Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being treated for a rare genetic mutation of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, announced two international hospitals and their researchers “have communicated to us as late as the last 24 hours that they have fresh evidence about their proposed experimental treatment.”
At a hearing Monday, Judge Nicholas Francis, who earlier ruled that Charlie’s life support should be ended and that it would take something “dramatic” to change his mind, said Charlie’s life support should continue until the court reviews the medical options and holds a further hearing Thursday.
MSN.com reported one of the hospitals volunteering to help Charlie is Bambino Gesu in Rome, the Vatican’s pediatric hospital.
Charlie previously was denied permission to travel to Rome to be treated at Vatican hospital.
“We believe, in common with Charlie’s parents, it is right to explore this evidence,” the London hospital said in a statement. “Our priority has always been, and will always be, the best interests of Charlie Gard.”
Britain’s High Court has the final say on whether or not Charlie is able to be treated outside of the U.K., since the European Court of Human Rights declined to intervene in late June. The hospital said it is “bound by the ruling of the High Court which expressly forbids us from transferring Charlie for nucleoside therapy anywhere.”
Experimental nucleoside therapy is the treatment proposed by the two hospitals that have submitted new evidence. It is a new, oral treatment that would theoretically repair Charlie’s DNA and help give him the nutrients that his body cannot produce naturally due to his condition.
According to the London Sun, a U.S. expert said 18 people have been treated with nucleoside bypass therapy, but none were in a condition as severe as Charlie’s.
Experts are giving the treatment a 10 percent chance of success. But Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, are willing to try.
“There are now seven doctors supporting us from all over the world – from Italy, from America, from England as well,” Yates said after presenting a petition signed by more than 350,000 supporters to GOSH on July 9, “and they think that [experimental treatment] has a chance, you know, up to 10 percent chance of working for Charlie, and we feel that that’s a chance worth taking.”
Another option being explored to get Charlie out of Britain for treatment has been proposed by two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Reps. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, and Trent Franks, R-Ariz. They intend to introduce legislation this week that would grant Charlie lawful permanent residency in the U.S.
Whether or not the British government would let Charlie travel to the U.S. if the legislation passes is unclear.
At the Thursday hearing, the judge is expected to hear all additional evidence and testimony.
The infant has brain damage, is blind and deaf, and needs a ventilator to breathe.
According to LifeNews, the baby’s parents also have sought help from Terri Schiavo’s brother, Bobby Schindler.
Schindler said Charlie’s situation is “very reminiscent of my family’s battle to save my sister, Terri.”
“Hopefully being here can help his parents, Connie and Charlie, deal with the day-to-day emotional roller coaster, as they fight for their son’s right to live,” he said.
Terri Schindler Schiavo died in 2005 after a court ordered removal of her feeding tube at the request of her husband.
Schindler told LifeNews he is calling for Britain to honor the wishes of Charlie’s parents and allow him to travel and receive the medical help he needs.
He said he will oversee a campaign to ensure the family is not removed from the decision-making regarding Charlie’s well-being, LifeNews reported.
New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Irving Medical Center have also volunteered to help with the case, offering several treatment options.
While President Trump has offered to help Charlie’s family take him to the U.S. for treatment, British officials have not.
Trump’s support came after Pope Francis weighed in on the family’s side.
WND reported earlier this year on the 12th anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo who was starved and dehydrated to death on court order. The media and her husband, Michael Schiavo, asserted Terri was in a “persistent vegetative state,” but her parents and brother, Bobby Schindler, insisted otherwise, claiming she was able to swallow, laugh and express love for her family.
In 1990, Terri, at age 26, collapsed in her St. Petersburg, Florida, home for a reason that still hasn’t been explained and was taken to a hospital by first responders who feared she was dead. She was comatose for a time, then started responding and was moved to a care center. Her family members say she was getting better before her court-ordered starvation.
WND has been reporting on the Terri Schiavo story since 2002. Read WND’s unparalleled, in-depth coverage of Terri Schindler Schiavo’s life-and-death fight, including more than 150 original stories and columns.
