Charlie Gard case

[LovelyBath77]

AIBU to feel the drama over this poor little boy is not helpful? I read the Pope and Donald Trump were suggesting they help- when several courts have agreed it is in his best interests to let the little boy die with dignity. I feel sorry for him as he may be in pain and it is unfair to add further to false hope for the parents as well. I also feel that many, many people has awful situations where babies die, sadly, for example stillbirths and other cases which are just un-heard and un-noticed and people have to deal with it, so why is there such a huge focus here.

I couldn't imagine any main sponsors withdrawing support over this...regardless of what's going on it one sick child and the hospital treat so many would they really deny so many the chance?

I just don't get the end game of the army lot. He goes for treatment..Doesn't work what then? Or it works a little but so little changes what then. What will people be protesting about/blaming then?

The demo looks pitiful at Downing Street tbh - about 30 of them by the video on the ITN live feed on FB. So much for the 60,000 huns that are pledging their lives to help get Charlie better..............

Suffering is not just about physical pain.

Whitecat can you link to the reports about these sponsors please? I'm unable to find anything either.

Any entities who have the sort of money where they'd be making large donations to GOSH probably have someone involved with enough wit to actually read and interpret the court judgements. And even the normal people who donate might hold the hospital or ones like it close to their hearts for more personal reasons. I seriously doubt this will hurt them financially, and if it does it'll be the kids that suffer not any of the doctors.

The stuff about the mum's DMs is upsetting. Some might take her comments as hope or whatever, but it just sounds to me like a woman literally driven mad by desperation and grief. Because if you don't believe doctors from around the UK (not just GOSH), Spain and the US when they say that your child is terminally ill and prefer to believe that they're actively colluding and lying instead- what else is that but madness? It's tragic. There's no other word for it.

I don't remamber where I have heard about sponsors threatening to withdraw support but I think it was to do with catholics being upset after Pope got involved.

I'm speculating..why else are they prolonging it?? If Charlie is in pain as they claim then it's just inhumane.
If they aren't sure they should let the parents make the decisions.

What is the end game of the hospital now?
Parents want their son moved and are holding onto hope of experimental treatment. End game he gets better or THEY decide when to let him go.

The baby is being kept alive through medical treatment. In fact by law it is the medical team who have the right to withdraw medical treatment. This can be done in the patient's best interests if it is considered to be more harmful than beneficial, as long as the intention is not to cause death but to stop the harm. Where the treatment is life support, obviously the difference between stopping harm and causing death is hard to see, and anyway stopping treatment should always be done in a relationship with family members if possible, hence the court cases. But it is the child who has the rights. Always. As a PP said, the parents have responsibilities instead. Apparently in other countries adults come before children? Not here.

gin that is just disgusting! Shame on that parent!

I'm almost tempted to make my own placards and join the protest. "Stop torturing Charlie", "Prolonging dying is not living", "Heal the wound, and cure the illness, but let the dying spirit go".

Too right Nocoolnames

On the CA FB page "Join in with something special"- trying to get people on board. It's all about them too, it seems!- the way children have been frightened of a wonderful hospital with such a brilliant reputation, and also how people who have also had to make that decision to let their child die and switch off life support, as well as the continued suffering of this child...well it's all too much really.

I think there should be a press and tv blackout on the story now

Unless you mean the coverage of the CA fanatics, it looks as if there has been a news blackout, at least from GOSH's point of view ... certainly I'm not aware of them having said much over the last week, which seems sensible as they're not answerable to a mob and anything they say will be used against them anyway

What does worry me, unless Charlie slip away on his own first, is if his parents will instantly leap to social media when told the removal of life support is imminent. Personally I'd have thought this would be best done with dignity and privacy, but that's rightly not my decision to make ... and in all honesty I don't want to think what might happen if his parents make that choice

I'm shaking at my head at the comment on the ITV video which compares Charlie to Stephen Hawking. There just really is no reasoning with that total lack of comprehension. The more they write the clearer it becomes that some of them just genuinely don't have the intellectual capacity to understand even the basics. And so so many MRI experts.

Well, I suppose the hospital must have security and wouldn't let any of CA into the intensive care. In most wards you have to buzz in don't you.

They don't seem to understand different situations and illnesses..they're not the same as Charlie's..yet because they got better it's proof he can..

I suppose the hospital must have security and wouldn't let any of CA into the intensive care

That's absolutely true, but I believe there's quite a lot of the hospital before you reach the ICU, much of it quite rightly accessible to the public

As I said, I very much hope this will be conducted with dignity and that my worry is groundless ... except that dignity and quiet reflection don't seem to be getting much of a look in recently

Yes, I would hope they wouldn't come into the hospital and cause a fuss, as ill children are being brought in for treatment, etc. The last thing you would need. But wouldn't put it past them. Sigh. Come to think of it, have seen police chaperoning someone out of our local hospital, it probably happens from time to time.

it looks as if there has been a news blackout, at least from GOSH's point of view

They can't say anything about Charlie's condition due to medical confidentiality, and there isn't anything else to say on their part, is there?

Charlie's right to privacy seems to have been entirely overlooked by most of these people. If it was an adult or teenager involved, who was unable to give consent to any of this due to his medical condition, I imagine most people would find it distasteful. It's no less distasteful when it's a baby.

I agree Doro. He deserves a dignified death and that just isn't possible now no matter how or where he dies. It's testament to how people have lost sight of what really matters in all of this.. CHARLIE. His final days have been turned into a fucking circus with all these protests, disgusting accusations and the bloody merchandise. It's shameful.

Thou shalt not kill; but needst not strive officiously to keep alive

I'm finding this case increasingly distressing. I have a horrible feeling that a child's needs are indeed going to be thrown under the bus in the name of adult politics, media popularity and gooey, ignorant sentimentalism.

Oh and our judicial system gets thrown under the bus too. Whoops.

Bearing in mind I have no more knowledge than anyone else and there probably is good reason - from an outside view it looks like GOSH made a monumental mistake when they gave way on turning the machines off on the Friday.

I am sat watching my baby son go to sleep, next to a picture of my baby daughter who died. My heart aches every second of everyday for that little girl. I try to find her in children of a similar age and answer all of the questions that can never be answered. It bloody hurts like hell, but I am glad I am the one hurting and not her. She was spared form the pain of this life. Would I give her this pain so that I wouldn't have to feel it? No. As much as I need her with me and my arms ache with the emptiness of her. I just couldn't see her in pain.

They don't seem to understand different situations and illnesses..they're not the same as Charlie's..yet because they got better it's proof he can..

I think that is kind of at the root of all this. The thought that sometimes you can't make children better is horrible. That all the medicine and allowed the live in the world can't change things. It doesn't seem right and it upsets the order in which we see the world. It is easier to think that if you just have enough money, the right person or even enough love it will be ok. But sometimes it won't. And that hurts deep into the depths of us so the thought that everything can be better is easier to comprehend.

I remember watching a documentary about children with cancer and there was a little girl who had gone into remission twice only for the cancer to return even more aggressively and the parents were told very gently by the consultant that there was nothing more they could do other than offer palliative care.
The parents initially refused to accept this and started searching options for treatment abroad and found a doctor in America offering a 'pioneering' treatment. They remortgaged their house and took her to America for this treatment. By the time of their next NHS appointment, she had had 3 doses of this treatment and looked absolutely awful.
The consultant again very gently put it to the parents that this treatment was very brutal and there was absolutely no evidence that it would work. The little girl's mum then completely broke down and said that she just wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't feel that she had 'fought' and 'done everything she could' for her child and that accepting that there was nothing more that could medically be done felt like she was 'giving up' on her daughter.
After spending nearly an hour with the consultant and a specialist cancer nurse, the parents accepted that subjecting their child to a brutal treatment regime that, at best, would prolong her life by an extra few months, was not in her best interests.
Instead, they made a decision to make sure that every moment of life she had left was filled with love.
She lived for another 5 months and, during that time, they held a party for her every single day, paid for her to spend a day as a zoo keeper, bought her a kitten, filled the house with balloons, built her a gingerbread house, took her on a speedboat, contacted CBeebies presenters and persuaded them to come and visit her, took her to the beach, had a star named after her, let her have chocolate for breakfast every day etc etc.
She passed away in a children's hospice surrounded by her family, with her favourite music playing and not in pain.
What really concerns me about this case is that there are parents like that out there who acted out of love for their child who are being called murderers because, according to Charlie's parents and CA, they should have fought harder to fight the inevitable.

Yeah not doubt the parents feel that way as well. Think people sometimes see what they want to see and seem in this case theyre hanging onto whatever hope they can

Whereas with the Army lot all these are signs GOSH are murderers etc etc

I am glad I am the one hurting and not her. She was spared form the pain of this life. Would I give her this pain so that I wouldn't have to feel it? No

The true spirit of motherhood indeed, if I might be allowed to say so

I'm so very sorry for what you've had to go through, badgers - as I am for all the brave posters who've suffered loss - but I firmly believe that from wherever she's watching you now, your baby girl will be delighted that another little life has been entrusted to you, to benefit from such love

I wonder if the date was changed from last friday due to security reasons and fears about disruption. I would hope that GOSH have sternly told the parents that the date isn't to be made public this time. My only hope is that somehow Charlie gets the quiet and dignified end that he deserves but something tells me that this is just the beginning of the parents rampage against GOSH .