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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

999 replies

Lonelymummyof1 · 01/07/2017 07:29

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 ?

OP posts:
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Bubbington · 04/07/2017 12:01

'Recreational Grieving' started with Princess Di/Jade Goody etc, UK's favourite pastime ...

Ellie56 · 04/07/2017 12:03

Agree with everything JaneEyre70 said. Lessons need to be learned from this so that no other hospital is ever subjected to the abuse and undermined in the appalling way that GOSH has in this tragically sad case.

It will be even more difficult now for them to turn off his life support.

And CA don't appear to "know" anything. They just think they do which is what is so terrifying.

Maudlinmaud · 04/07/2017 12:05

I'm starting to wonder if I'm a really cold hearted person. This situation has left me examining my feelings very closely. Life is a gift but I couldn't watch someone I love suffering in this way. I did though. Df was in ICU for almost 2 months, we watched helplessly as he faded away in front of our eyes. I regret that. For his sake, not ours.

Redglitter · 04/07/2017 12:06

I wonder what would happen if they did take Charlie to America & the doctor admitted that no he was as GOSH had said untreatable & he subsequently died. Would the CA mob admit they were wrong or redirect their anger to their 'hero Trump and the US doctors

HeyRoly · 04/07/2017 12:07

Going back to the hospice point again, actually I'm fairly sure a hospice isn't an appropriate place for Charlie. Hospices are for the dying to live out their final weeks/days. Charlie, unfortunately, is not going to slowly fade away. He will die as soon as ventilation is stopped. I'm fairly certain that hospices don't cater for those kind of patients - it would be a tremendous waste of time (and unnecessarily traumatic for the patient) to transfer a patient to a different environment just so that they can have life support withdrawn.

DorotheaBeale · 04/07/2017 12:14

I do think they should have done anything they could to get him into a hospice or home

Don't know if it was this thread or the other one I said this on, but the hospital has to base its decisions on whether it would be in Charlie's best interests to go home. Sadly, I don't see how it can be. As I understand it, he wouldn't even be aware of it.

And he has no memory of being at home; even if he had any awareness, he wouldn't know what 'home' meant. It seems wrong to me to put him through all the extra stress and possibly pain of the journey when it would be of no benefit to him. (I don't know where 'home' is; how long a journey would it be?)

If he was an older child, aware of his surroundings, who knew what being 'at home' meant and who was capable of expressing a preference, then I would agree it would be in his best interests if it was at all possible. But I don't see how it could be in Charlie's best interests. And Charlie's best interests are what the case is all about.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/07/2017 12:15

Oh, ruddy great - now it's reported that the Pope's offered to have Charlie taken care of at some Roman hospital: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/04/popes-hospital-offers-take-care-charlie-gard/

Is there no limit to the number of people who want to stick their oar into this? Hmm

Doubledottvremote · 04/07/2017 12:18

Plus the mob would then likely protest about the hospice. Call them murderers and have their funding cut.

MommaGee · 04/07/2017 12:18

Yes sorry Puzzled I was being sarcastic. Apparwbtly its because if he goes home the PM will be done elsewhere and show how GOSH lied because they just want him dead.

Redglitter · 04/07/2017 12:18

I hope GOSH don't give in to what is basically just bullying and stick by their decision to do what's best for Charlie. I hope giving his parents a few extra days with him isn't going to spectacularly backfire on them

nolongersurprised · 04/07/2017 12:18

In the Southern Hemisphere there have been a few cases where parents have withdrawn their kids from conventional chemo and gone into hiding. The media was hugely excited initially with a whole heap of coverage of the alternative therapies the families were accessing and a big focus on the parents' rights vs the medical professionals - with a strong bias towards the former. However, when the children died there was minimal coverage - defying the odds, defying the medics and fighting the system is infinitely more newsworthy than a very sick child succumbing to their illness.

reallyanotherone · 04/07/2017 12:21

I wonder what would happen if they did take Charlie to America & the doctor admitted that no he was as GOSH had said untreatable & he subsequently died

Chances are he's die in transit. And likely the medical team who would need to travel with him would be blamed for "murdering" him mid-air. Because it's all a conspiracy.

Original poster
Lonelymummyof1 · 04/07/2017 12:23

Its heartbreaking :(

OP posts:
ARumWithAView · 04/07/2017 12:25

I think this is truly one of the most appalling medical stories I've ever heard and am disgusted that even now, the parents are calling all the shots via social media. It must never be allowed to happen again, and I hope GOSH are fully prepared for any future conflicts as a result of this.

This is absolutely right. I can't believe how it's spiralled out of control. How the hell can we be in a position where the input of multiple medical specialists and the judgements of the UK's Supreme Court and the ECHR might be overruled by a) a massively uninformed, vicious, sentimental and irresponsible online mob, b) the religious leader of a church which has repeatedly shown how much it values Life over people, and c) the president of another country, who intends to greatly restrict healthcare access for his own citizens and whose previous tweet was a puerile clip of him wrestling CNN?

I really feel like this is the year social media began to seem scary, instead of stupid.

MirandaWest · 04/07/2017 12:31

I feel quite scared about what will happen. There's no winners in any of this but I actually feel it could threaten the legal system and allow for mob rule, if GOSH does act in a different way because of Charlie's Army

GinSoakedTwitchyPony · 04/07/2017 12:32

RedGlitter, I was thinking about that yesterday evening. I think they'd still blame GOSH. I think they'd convince themselves that Charlie had 'become' untreatable due to the delay in sending Charlie to the US.
From comments I've seen on the CA pages (US one included), many of them lack any reasoning skills and are just a rabid, baying mob.
GOSH will be blamed one way or the other.

GinSoakedTwitchyPony · 04/07/2017 12:32

YY Miranda, same here.

Belindarocks · 04/07/2017 12:32

I'm Catholic but I think the Pope is wrong and and should not get involved. There is no point in keeping this child alive. He is not living anyway...just existing with the help of a machine. Actually I think it is unchristian to prolong this poor baby's suffering.

olliegarchy99 · 04/07/2017 12:36

Arum
I really feel like this is the year social media began to seem scary, instead of stupid.

this ^^

reallyanotherone · 04/07/2017 12:40

Belinda- if you read the pope's statement he has not got involved.

He was supportive, in that he is thinking and praying for them. But he does not say that charlie should be kept alive, only that we should try to heal where we can, but accepts sometimes we cannot, and hopes charlies parents can be with him until he dies.

It has been twisted by charlies supporters into the pope backing the parents. He did not.

The "pope's hospital" which is purportedly offering help, i don't think is acting on any papal instruction.

LogicalPsycho · 04/07/2017 12:43

Trump, the man who has taken 20 million people's Healthcare Insurance in his own country, and offered platitudes to the parent of one child in a foreign country- what a hero.

The Pope, Head of the world's billion Catholics, how ironic that he pledges the services of advanced medical science Confused
instead of praying to his boss

newestbridearound · 04/07/2017 12:52

Someone I know has shared that loose women are doing a poll as to whether parents should have the ultimate final say over a sick child's life. It's been posted on the CA page and now they've all headed over there to 'keep up the fight'. When I checked it was at 88% in favour.

The idea of it sets a scary precedent though. Parents facing the loss of a child aren't always going to be able to think with their head- I'd have assumed rational decision making goes absolutely out of the window. Of course parents would want to do anything to save their child. They are facing the worst thing anyone could face. Sometimes therefore hard as it is to accept medical professionals and the courts need to step in and take action to prevent/end suffering when there is no hope of improvement. In Charlie's case going to the USA won't change anything; they keep talking about it but there's no one to treat him.
If you try and point this out to anyone on that page though you get vilified as a hater, a murderer, a bad mother, a troll and I saw one person even being called a twisted cunt. Awful.

reallyanotherone · 04/07/2017 12:56

Someone I know has shared that loose women are doing a poll as to whether parents should have the ultimate final say over a sick child's life. It's been posted on the CA page and now they've all headed over there to 'keep up the fight'. When I checked it was at 88% in favour

This works both ways though. It's not unheard of for courts to have to step in to order treatment for a sick child- for example Jehovah's witnesses, those who believe in herbal remedies to treat cancer etc.

Are we allow those parents to choose to let their children die when a simple blood transfusion can save them?

We have this court process for a reason.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 04/07/2017 12:58

I really feel like this is the year social media began to seem scary, instead of stupid.

No, last year was pretty scary too.

The people in CA really remind me of some people I spoke to about Brexit. Sorry! (Not all people, obviously.)

The irrational barking out of slogans - Get control back. Get Charlie home.

The failure to understand the complexity of anything. - And actual disinterest in anything that is not black or white.

The tirade against the elites - What do the scientists know? What do the stupid Doctors know?

The idea that there is a simple panacea - If we leave the EU, the many problems of globalization will be solved. If he leaves GSOH, he may get better.

The bizarre faith in the US - we'll get a grade trade deal with them. If we get Charlie to America, it'll be great.

The idea that feelings beat facts/evidence.

frankie001 · 04/07/2017 13:00

Some one on CA has tweeted the Dalai Lana and are hopeful of a reply. Hmm