Charlie Gard 7

[CaveMum]

Continuation of the discussion.

It looks highly unlikely that there will be a verdict today as GOSH have not yet been able to put their case across. The Gard family had their position heard this morning and currently an expert witness from the US is being questioned via video link.

Sorry nina2b wasn't sure if I made it clear

By the way out of context this is just funny.

I have finally managed to report the death threat to the Met.

Hasn't this gone a bit beyond a multidisciplinary meeting?! I'm assuming they tried that before dragging the whole thing through the courts.

Showing my ignorance of legal proceedings here (unlike the Barmies I won't pretend to know everything)... why are the lawyers expected to find a consensus? Aren't they fundamentally opposed? Isn't it the judge's job to listen to everything and make a ruling?

judg mayb wants to giv on more chance

i dont get it persnoally

Straight, I have an image of him sitting, still waiting his turn when everyone has gone home! Poor guy.

I take it they're looking at having the meeting in the morning and resuming the hearing in the afternoon. But I agree, I can't see how it will change things unless the parents have had a massive change of heart. I did wonder if Connie was so upset because hearing their own witness saying how small the chances are had brought reality home to her.

Oh no - now they're talking about the meeting happening "in a matter of days."

The CA are all convinced that the judge has decided to back the Dr in America and this meeting is to persuade GOSH to let him go. That's not what I was getting from it though?

Maybe they're aiming to get the NY doctor over for that meeting?

The judge doesn't need to persuade GOSH. He has the authority to just tell them.

He may be trying to convince c&c to do the right thing though...

If they get that doc over fromthe Usa this evening, he sees Charlie first thing, and draws a conclusion, on having seen him, then have a meeting?

So tomorrow hearing will tell us when the meeting is.

"No word yet on what form that meeting will take, where it will happen and if the press and public will be admitted."

Surely it would be totally inappropriate to let the public in? How productive would it be with CA catcalling from the side?

So they are having a court session tomorrow afternoon to assess how close the parties are to arranging the meeting which will take place in a matter of days....

This just seem bizarre. Dragging this on is cruel for poor Charlie and his parents as well. They continue to live in this limbo of hope while their poor baby keeps getting worse.

The thing about the US doctor is that his first interest is research. He looks primarily at whether or not what he might do would further his research and thus benefit medical treatment as a whole rather than it's effect on one particular patient. Naturally he also wants the most positive outcome possible for that patient, but it's not his primary motivation. He doesn't want to act in a manner that would knowingly cause actual harm, but he may be more likely to act with a larger margin of 'uncertainty' as to outcome to further his research.

I think his call for a specialist to examine Charlie first is in line with the 'do no harm' part. I also think it's not as simple as hopping a plane and taking an Uber to GOSH. He will have multiple 'strings' to his research and multiple team members working those strings and reporting to him. He's not working on this on his own, it's not possible. And so that means that a 'team' will need to come with him. And GOSH will need to have certain equipment and ability to quickly get tests done and interpreted.

This isn't a TV drama. The doctor can't stride into GOSH with a stethoscope, prod Charlie and announce "Ah HA!! I have the answer!!!".

Italian witness in 2032. "Hello... anybody there...?"

Isn't a multidisciplinary meeting between the different sets of doctors rather than the different parties in this? Wouldn't that be a mediation meeting?

If I had to guess here, I'd say:

• the judge doesn't want Charlie to go to the US
• he is hoping GOSH will agree to a time limited trial of the therapy here following an emergency ethics approval under the 'remote' supervision of the US doctor
• Buys time, allows (he hopes) media furore and the crazies to go away.

This is an approach fraught with issues. Who will decide when therapy is over? Who will gauge the success? Also, ignores the fact that relationship between parents and GOSH staff have irretrievably broken down.

I fear I lack the moral stamina of the GOSH paediatric intensivists. If I were the clinical director of the PICU, I would allow discharge of Charlie to the US hospital willing to treatment him. Costs of transfer and care there to be entirely incurred by the parents. And with the proviso that Charlie was not to be admitted back to Great Ormond Street on a ventilator (i.e. they wouldn't take him back unless the mystical therapy had produced sufficient improvement so as to wean him from a ventilator). The latter wouldn't happen.
But they're better people, clearly, as they recognise what the above plan would do to Charlie.

Please no public in the meeting. Maybe the press through just to prevent spinning.

I'm quite worried about the Italian chap too. They're two hours ahead, has he had any dinner? Should we have a whipround and send him a pizza?

willing to TREAT him

Monday the judge seemed adamant that he wanted to make sure nothing dragged on and he was thinking of Charlie's welfare.

What happens if they show up tomorrow to say they can't agree on a date? Surely the parents are going to stall as much as possible?

Wheres-a everybody-a gone?" (people in Italy talk like that, right?

Well my husband does

Nobody should worry too much about the Italian Doc. This is Italy. Hanging around for hours waiting for things to happen only for them to get cancelled right at the end = Not An Unknown Life Event.

morrow's court session will asses how close the parties are to arranging that meeting. #CharlieGard