AIBU to think that thousands of people loving charlie and bradley is some what false.

[Lonelymummyof1]

I know exactly what It is like to have a poorly child same as hundreds more parents in the uk.
Set aside my belief that I believe that bradley has very little dignity and both him and charlie are now used as some weird sort of click bait.

The supporters I do not understand it ?

We love you, we are heart broken and we will miss you.

Now I get empathy but this is not empathy this is media posts just gone crazy to write the most heart breaking post they can.
I wish neither of these children would have to lose their life and can undetstand the parents pain just like the rest of the terminally ill children in this country.

You can feel sad that these things happen but this just seems weird and could not imagine allowing a nation of people watching my child pass away.

I mean how many of them 2 years from now will wake up on the morning of their anniversary and automatically remember them ?

No, I'm with you. Both of them seem to be being exploited to me.

I can not even look at my newsfeed, I am so confused by peoples response.

Agree pottering I feel it's quite exploitative.

I agree. It seems more for the parents sake

I am on the fence with this- if it brings comfort to the parents is that a good thing regardless of motive. Although I do agree with the points you make

Blue hearts all over Facebook for Charlie, that's really not going to help the situation is it?

I hate things like this. We have a friend of a friend who has just lost an adult daughter suddenly. The whole thing is being played out on fb. I have sent my condolences via pm. Was asked last week if I knew becauseI hadnt posted on any of the manu threads.

In the case of those children I would want privacy. I would want to say my goodbyes in peace without constantly updating social media or posting videos. Those children deserve dignity and privacy not 1000's of FB followers saying howe heartbroken they are.

Of course I say that from the position of never having gone through that. So I don't know what I would do. And in Charlies case I understand why they have a presence on social media but I would expect the end to be a private moment.

I thought the sMe. The photo with the candles surely should have been private.
But I can't imagine what they are going through

I think a lot of people have got wrapped up in, I feel for the parents for what is a horrific situation, but obviously we are only getting to hear one side of the story.

Apparently the doctor in the US withdrew his offer for the treatment when he discovered how ill Charlie was. With regards to taking him home, GOSH must have a reason why they don't believe this is possible?

I think people seem to have lost touch with what this is actually all about - what is best for a baby

Yes i agree.
And then post "rip" and "sleep with angles".
So disrespectful.

I agree YANBU.

Re Charlie - the blue heart FB trend is ridiculous. Really you want to show support? donate to a mitochondrial fund. We can only imagine the horrors the parents are facing but I can't bear to see another NHS bashing thread saying doctors are barbaric for not allowing Charlie to go home. How about what's best for Charlie?? How about if they move him it might cause distress and pain?

Beepbeep interestingly we are under GOSH and we all very disheartened about the effects its has on the hospital and the effects on treatment for other children.

Removal of donations etc.

The truth is in every hospital across the uk not only GOSH will make the decision this week to turn a life support off and have done many times before.
It is not murder.

The statements about it being murder what about all these parents who have and had made these decisions are the murderes to ?

Its pretty apparent at this stage that mitochondria is what my DD has.
All these people on my newsfeed if I asked them the first thing about mito they would not have a clue.
Posts of adults etc with it doing well.

Mito effects everyone differently including which organs it effects.

The furore surrounding Charlie gard is borderline insanity. People have whipped themselves up into a rabid frenzy over a child they don't know and a very complicated medical case which they can't be arsed to educate themselves about.
Some of the batshit stuff I've read includes, calling the police to 'have GOSH arrested for murder' really?! You can arrest hospitals now?!
Stealing a sample of Charlie's milk to have it tested because followers of 'Charlie's army' believe it's being laced with sedatives to keep him asleep and actually he's fine, no brain damage at all.
Madness. Let the child have some dignity in his final hours.

I assume it brings the parents comfort to feel that other people care about and remember their son. However delusional that is. When an adult dies, many people remember them and have shared in knowing them. Many people can share memories of them.

When a small baby dies, the parents must fear that soon, no one will remember. They are trying to keep him alive, even just in memory.

I find so many of the MN posts on this really distasteful. Those parents are going through unimaginable pain, and no, you don't know what they are feeling unless your child has had treatment withdrawn without your consent.

People keep saying, oh I'd let my child go with dignity. Would you? If you honestly believed something could save them? You'd really just say "well I think my child could be saved but others say no, so goodbye"?

I think they're deluded but I also think they're sincere and it is desperately sad. That poor mother. I don't do Facebook but I'm not going to criticise blue hearts if it brings her comfort.

I saw posts comparing one mitochondrial child's care to Charlie's and how much better the other child was!
People don't understand it's not the same thing (DH has a mitochondrial disease- varies enormously)

The whole sending him to America thing is ridiculous- the posters know nothing about what's going on and GOSH staff are being abused for it.

It's mob mentality

Everything is cheapened and lessened into just another bandwagon for the day or the week. It's ridiculous and embarrassing tbh.

Everything is being reduced to a click on bloody face book and is more about the clickers than what they're clicking about.

How about a selfie? Squeeze a tear out? Look at me I'm so empathetic ... now here's me 10 minutes later shopping/down the pub/getting my nails done''.

I can honestly say faced in that situation I have a will let my DD go but that is not what I find distasteful.

Not even the parents its the people on social media and the newspapers.

We spent 22 months on a childrens ward dd has a central line , tubes etc so far has managed to stay out of all tabloids so it is possible.
I could not imagine DD have thousands upon thousands of people that pretend to love her.
Family, friends , teachers love her.

I have to say ladies, this is the only common sense thread I've read on the subject.

Yes, I empathise with the parents grief, and rage but in their hearts they must know nothing was ever going to work. A snake oil quack in the USA with experimental treatment on a different condition was never going to work was it? No wonder he gracefully pulled out. Some of the comments made to the media by Charlie parents are grim reading. They have negatively impacted on a great institution.

The media however has a nasty way of turning on people. Depending on what they do with their 1.4 million windfall, I can see people who donated whipping up another frenzy. It would be a marvellous gesture if they donated it to GOSH, the hospital who has treated and cared for their child for the past 10 months, somehow I don't see that happening.

I've not seen any of this furore you talk of. And I do have a facebook account.

Obviously connected to the wrong people- I haven't seen a single post about it.

I was going to post something similar until my friend advised me to keep it to myself. But yes, it's Princess Di all over again.

But johnny it won't bring the mum comfort as she'll never see the blue hearts. The people who are posting them on my FB news feed have it set to friends only. So she won't see it. It serves no purpose for Charles family just shows the person who posted it is just joining the ridiculous bandwagon which then be forgotten a couple of days later.

I suppose the charlie one had some sort of motive at the begining.
Bradley's last few monthe of life has been one big documentary.
I often wonder how the 100s of terminal children at home watching must feel like to.

Lonelymummy all I can say is that from what I've read on here, you seem like a lovely mummy to a lovely daughter.

I think for your own self-care it might be wise for you to try to block out most of the current media storm about poor Charlie Gard. It's understandably very triggering for you and is only going to cause you more pain trying to get your head around it.

The best I can say is that different people react differently... but there's no point trying to understand it.

The anger and venom directed toward GOSH is vile. They're not the enemy, they're not withdrawing life support because they can't be arsed! There is no 'shame on you' they have done everything possible for Charlie and the hatred from Charlie's parents and their 'army' is completely misplaced.