A four-year-old boy whose life support was turned off in April despite desperate pleas from his parents has made a miraculous improvement.
The boy, who was born with severe disabilities and cannot see or hear, has been kept alive by machines since 2023 after developing a serious brain infection that caused two heart attacks.
But his Christian parents lost their High Court case earlier this year against King’s College Hospital NHS Trust to send him to a Vatican-backed hospital in Italy for further treatment.
The judge ruled at the time that the boy, whose name cannot be mentioned, should not be “forced to live” because the burdens on the child “far outweigh the benefits.”
But within a few months his condition has improved and he is back home.
In April, the boy’s Christian parents lost their High Court case against King’s College Hospital NHS Trust earlier this year to send him to a Vatican-backed hospital in Italy
Judge Poole, who visited the boy in hospital before giving doctors permission to stop treatment, has now also withdrawn his approval to restrict treatment.
According to a new judge’s report, he no longer needs a catheter, is fed through a vein and is breathing normally.
Judge Poole, who visited the boy in hospital before giving doctors permission to stop treatment, has now also withdrawn his approval to restrict treatment.
“He has exceeded all medical expectations and his case underscores the saying that ‘medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability,’” he added.
King’s College Hospital also admitted it would not have sought permission to withdraw treatment if the boy had been ‘in his present condition and circumstances’.
The judge said the case was “highly unusual and raises a number of difficult questions for the court which must be answered openly and objectively.”
He also said lawyers “could not identify a single reported case of a child surviving for months after life-sustaining treatment was stopped following a court order.”
But after reflecting ‘anxiously’ on his earlier judgment in April, he was convinced it was ‘justified’ on the evidence presented.
At the time, Judge Poole ruled that the love and devotion of the boy’s ‘parents’ is so strong that they cannot accept what people with whom they have less personal contact can see.
He added: ‘Knowing that the burdens of treatment to keep him alive far outweigh the benefits, and that it is in his best interests for life-sustaining treatment to be stopped.’
The boy’s parents, identified only as Mr and Mrs R, called the decision in April “completely unethical to cause his death by choice”.
Mrs R. responded this week to the annulment of the verdict: ‘Our starting point is that statistics do not help.
‘It would be more honest if doctors would acknowledge that he is an individual who doesn’t really understand medical science and that he is not a good basis for predicting what this complicated little boy can do.
‘(The boy) survived when the doctors and nurses who cared for him for months thought he couldn’t.
“He has a right to life. It seems to us that his will to live is strong and his life is good.”
The reversal came after his parents filed a request to lift the permitted “treatment ceilings.”
The boy’s case is the latest high-profile end-of-life hearing to reach the Royal Courts of Justice, following similar heated battles over the treatment of children including Indi Gregory, Archie Battersbee (pictured), Isaiah Haastrup and Charlie Gard
Last year, eight-month-old Indi Gregory, who had an incurable genetic mitochondrial disorder, died after her ventilator was removed
In his ruling, the judge added that while the boy “continues to suffer the burdens of his condition and some of the treatment … there is also evidence that he is now able to enjoy life at home with his parents again.”
But he also said it was unclear how he managed to defy the expectations of the medical professionals who treated him.
The boy’s case is the latest high-profile end-of-life hearing to reach the Royal Courts of Justice, following similar, heated battles over the treatment of children including Indi Gregory, Archie Battersbee, Isaiah Haastrup and Charlie Gard.
Last year, eight-month-old Indi, who had an incurable genetic mitochondrial disorder, died after her ventilator was removed.
Her parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, were heartbroken and could not persuade judges at the High Court and Court of Appeal in London and judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, to keep her on the machines.
Indi, born on February 24, 2023, suffered from a rare, incurable, degenerative mitochondrial disease, which caused her cells to not produce enough energy.
According to the doctors, Indi was suffering from severe pain and discomfort and there was nothing more they could do for her.
When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni heard that doctors had decided to stop Indi’s life support, she even granted her citizenship. The Bambino Gesu children’s hospital in Rome offered to treat her.
However, the judges ruled that life-sustaining treatment could only be withdrawn in a hospital or hospice, not in the family’s home.