To ask people to PLEASE not picket hospitals?

[SerfTerf]

Or consider any kind of direct action against a hospital because of decisions concerning any individual patient.

It's irresponsible.

If their just standing with signs then what's the issue. Your allowed to peacefully disagree. Great Ormond street do some fantastic work, and I'm supportive of that. But this time they've got it so very wrong. The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree.

The hospital got what it wanted, stopped the parents seeking treatment elsewhere for him. Anyone of us would do and try anything if that was our child, I would. The hospital got their way. Now their just twisting the knife let the poor boy go home with his parents. Let them have a few more days. It's sad, that parents are little more than incubators now.

This isn't about Charlie, they don't care about him, this is rent-a-mob stirred up by the gutter press

Absolutely spot on.

Bunch of utter wankers to even consider doing such a thing. I hope the fuckers are arrested if they go ahead with this.

But this time they've got it so very wrong. The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree.

Speak for yourself, the majority of MN would disagree with you.

I feel incredibly sad for all involved. The parents of this poorly little boy have no doubt being in hell whilst this is going on and I completely understand their actions. However they are partly to blame for this social media frenzy. Every media appearance and every post I've seen has insinuated that the medical team are the enemy. The people who have been keeping this poor baby alive and were forced down this path when it became clear to them he would not recover and had no quality of life yet they're the villians or the piece.
I hope Charlie goes peacefully and his parents will always know that they did everything possible to try to save him.

Charlie's parents could largely put a stop to this if they wanted to by issuing a statement. They're choosing not to do that.

The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree

Its not for the public to agree.

But tell us where tbey got it wring. Facts. Have you read the judgement. The doctors in the US admit they cant help him. It would be an experiment. He doesnt deserve that.

Be surprised if the number that have agreed actually do anything..then again we also have the whole if can't make it stand outside your local hospital instead so who knows...

The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree.

Held accountable for what? Keeping him alive? caring for him? Looking into the proton therapy that was suggested? Consulting with the American doctor who deals with it? If you read the judgment you'd know that they did try, Charlie was just too poorly and his brain damage too extensive that any treatment would have been futile.

How awful, just shows a complete lack of intelligence.

LittleBooInABox,the public don't agree with a medical decision? Really,so what? Medicine isn't usually carried on based on democratic votes from the people involved and anyone else who might be interested.
This is a sad sad case,but "the public" don't have the information or the knowledge and experience to know what is best for Charlie,and I'm sure that the people who do have that information and experience have't lightly chosen to do what they've done - and their job has been to do what is best for him.
Poor little boy.

I doubt this group of protesters are representative of "the public" in general.

It's a desperately sad situation and it's a shame it couldn't be resolved more easily. Those parents must be going through hell and not everyone reacts in a calm and considered manner.

The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree.

They don't need to be held accountable to anyone. Least of all the baying internet mob who think they know better than actual medical professionals just because they've read some news reports.

@Saiman I'm saying the doctors got it wrong by not allowing the little boy to go home for his last few days.

Not the treatment in the USA, I disagree with that for other reasons. His parents will always have what ifs because the choice was taken away from them. But that's a whole other issue one I'm not qualified to begin to pick apart. But they could have allowed the child to go home, like they do with so many other terminal patients. Pain management can't be achieved at home. I don't see why they can't at least support that.

But this time they've got it so very wrong. The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree

How have they got it wrong?
Have you read the judgement by the the way?

I think MN should put a full moratorium on threads about Charlie for a while. I think the issues involved in the case are very important, but the discussion becomes ugly every single time, and I can't imagine how painful this is for people who have lost children.

LittleBooInABox I am part of 'the public' the same as everyone else. Please do not speak for me as, like many on here, I agree with the ruling. It's desperately sad for Charlie and his parents, but it's been agreed by medical experts who actually have the full facts that there is nothing more that can be done for Charlie.

Whatever 'the public' thinks is irrelevant and I hope that anyone threatening GOSH staff is charged. What do people think picketing is going to do, other than distress other patients and their families? Anyone who's happy to do that is disgraceful.

I also think it's inappropriate for the short, cruel and painful life of a child to be used as an excuse for grandstanding in this way.

@Littlebooinabox the problem is that a couple of hundred people with placards chanting outside the hospital would be extremely distressing to other patients and their families. There are three hospitals in that location, two of which are full of extremely ill patients.

It would be mind-bogglingly selfish to decide that their pain and distress at having to run a gauntlet of angry protesters should be dismissed. If your extremely sick relative was in there, in pain, fighting for their life, just how kindly would you look on the baying mob?

"The team dealing with this needs to be held accountable, or at the very least be aware that the public don't agree."

This really is taking rejection of experts to a ridiculous degree.

The media circus at its worse. Disgusting that GOSH is being demonised when all they have done is have the best interests of a very sick, terminally ill baby at heart. You have to feel for the medical staff in all of this, they will have been very much affected too by this sad case.

the public don't agree

Since when were clinical decisions made on the basis of popular opinion? This is about end-of-life care for a little boy, not Britain's Got Talent.
Even if it were possible to let him go home without causing him more pain and suffering, the hate stirred up by the media circus has now made it unsafe, as ignorant keyboard warriors have been incited to block and attack the hospital staff that would need to accompany him.

Whilst I feel terribly sorry for the parents in this case. I do suspect that the way they have handled the media has contributed them to not being able to take Charlie home safely.

It would require a number of nurses to go with them, these nurses would likely now be subject to abuse, thanks to the media storm whipped up. There is also the potential flight risk, if you knew your son was dying and you had the money to have a private chartered plane to rush him to the USA which you have been fighting for but denied I am sure you would consider it. The hospital can't take that risk when they are advocating for their patient.
I feel dreadfully sorry for them, but I am struggling with how much damage they have done in some ways to their own cause and that of GOSH. The GOSH FB is just awful to read at the moment and Charlies parents could help stop it, instead they aren't and the drs and nurses are being named with statements about them being murderers. I'm not saying the medical profession get it right every day, and there aren't mistakes but this has been considered at the highest level and deemed sadly the most appropriate course of action.

Sad all around, and I hope Charlie goes peacefully with his parents there and not in th middle of a media circus.

I hope none of you have to go through anything near what these poor parents are going through.
You can sit in your ivory tower thinking you know best but if it was your little boy your reaction may be a little different.

If only the keyboard warriors took the time to read the court judgements, they may not be so ignorant in the process. To think a child has been on life support with no chance of recovery since October last year is deeply unsettling to think about, but the parents are being very selective with their media story. I hope someone in their family steps in now to look after them and keeps them away from the media for a very long time, but sadly I think this is going to get a lot worse and the clinical team who've kept their son alive for nearly 8 months have no voice. GOSH is a world leading hospital and they have been treated very unfairly here.

It's a very distressing situation but it's the Court which has made this decision, not the hospital. Picketing is very irresponsible, will add to the distress of hte parents and the staff, and protestors are not thinking about the hundreds of other very sick children who are in GOSH.