Archie Battersbee: ‘Glimmer of hope’ for mother of boy, 12, facing life support switch off
Hollie Dance is fighting a court ruling that allows her 12 year-old son’s life support to be turned off
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Your support makes all the difference.A mother has said there has been a “glimmer of hope” for her brain-damaged son as she prepares to appeal a ruling allowing doctors to switch off his life support.
Hollie Dance said 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who was injured in an incident at home in April and has not regained conciousness since, has responded to music and smell.
A High Court judge ruled last week doctors could legally stop treating Archie after his parents had challenged proposals to switch off his life support, concluding the boy had died the end of last month.
His mother hit out at the ruling, saying her son’s heart was “still beating” and he had not been given enough time.
The family’s request an appeal is set to go before the High Court Monday afternoon, who will decide whether it can proceed or not.
Ahead of this, Ms Dance told the Mirror she believes Archie showed a positive sign at the hospital where he is staying.
“His blood pressure went up, so we put on a deep-breathing meditation recording and put lavender oil under his nose and within 10 minutes his blood pressure dropped to normal levels,” she told the newspaper.
“It’s a glimmer of hope. He’s in there and he’s going to wake up, he just needs time.”
“All I want is for them to give him time to heal.”
Archie was left brain damaged after his family said he suffered a “tragic accident” at home in April - which his mother believes could have been linked to an online challenge.
The High Court had been asked to decide what was best for the boy, after doctors said he was “brain-stem dead” and his parents pushed back against proposals to stop treating him.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot ruled last Monday: “I find that Archie died at noon on May 31 2022, which was shortly after the MRI scans taken that day. I find that irreversible cessation of brain stem function has been conclusively established.”
The judge added: “I give permission to the medical professionals at the Royal London Hospital to cease to ventilate mechanically Archie Battersbee.”
But Ms Dance said it was “not good enough” for the judgement to be based “on an MRI test and that he is ‘likely’ to be dead”.
“I feel sickened that the hospital and the judge have failed to take the wishes of the family into consideration,” she said.
After being given permission to stop treating Archie last week, the hospital said it would allow the family time to decide whether to appeal before making any changes in care.
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