Hearts have gone out to Connie Yates and Chris Gard in the aftermath of the final leg of their legal battle to keep their son, Charlie, alive. Now, the distraught parents have made another devastating revelation: they have been refused permission to bring him home to die.
Just days after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it would not be intervening in his case, Connie and Chris claim that their final wish has been denied by Great Ormond Street Hospital.
In a video shot exclusively for the Mail Online, a tearful Connie and Chris reveal that 10-month-old Charlie is set to be taken off of life-support tomorrow.
They claim to have been previously given the option of bringing Charlie home or to a hospice at the end of his treatment; however, when they met with hospital executives yesterday, they were told that neither of these options were viable.
“We want to give him a bath; we want to sit on the sofa with him; we want to sleep in the bed with him; we want to put him in the cot he has never slept in – but we are now being denied that,” said Chris.
“We had a meeting yesterday, where we were told we were going to discuss our options. We said we’d like to take him home; if that’s not possible, we said we’d like to take him to a hospice – they said no to both. He has to die in that hospital, tomorrow.”
Chris and Connie also hit back against Great Ormond Street Hospital’s statement, claiming that there was ‘no rush’ in withdrawing Charlie’s life-support. They claim that they spent today ‘begging’ executives to give them the weekend, as some relatives cannot make it tomorrow – but this has also been denied.
They added that while Charlie is ‘still fighting’, they feel that they are ‘not allowed to fight for him anymore’.
“Our parental rights have been stripped away,” said Chris. “We can’t even take our own son home to die – we’ve been denied that.”
Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors claim that Charlie, who was born with a rare genetic condition, will never have any quality of life. They brought a case to the British courts asking for permission to withdraw life-support.
Connie and Chris have fought the case at every step, claiming that Charlie should have the right to try out experimental treatment in the US.
Our hearts are going out to Chris and Connie right now – we can’t imagine what they are going through.
