Archie Battersbee case

[whynotwhatknot]

I was just wondering why we're not allowed to post about this case-the deletion message mentioned it was ongoing so wouldnt be fair to the family

Charlie gards case was on going and there was numerous threads about it

Anyway if this stands maybe we can discuss

What a terrible and distressing spectacle. Whoever is advising these parents should be struck off. They are vultures preying on the desperate and vulnerable.

There are worse things in life than death.

Probably already been mentioned but I hadn't realised AB and his mum were in the national news a few years ago as they were given ear drops instead of eye drops by the pharmacy which burned his eye. Must have been very painful poor lad.

Best interests hearing on 11th July, the argument about whether he is brainstem dead was abandoned.

The judge for the11th July also ruled in the Alfie Evans case, so the Army are bound to call the likely outcome of mechanical ventilation can stop a conspiracy.

I can’t believe they’ve allowed the appeal. Genuinely shocked.

How can anyone argue that it’s in Archie’s best interests for him to endure all this until eventually his heart just gives up?

I just read that he had a cardiac arrest before the hearings. Why is he not DNR?

They allowed the appeal on the basis that the question of best interests was not properly addressed by the guardian or the judge, as they were arguing about whether he was brain dead.

Well I am intrigued as to what arguments they can come up with to say it’s in his best interests to either be allowed to slowly deteriorate and decay until eventually going into cardiac arrest OR, remain on a ventilator in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.

Im not sure how either of those options are favourable over a calm and peaceful passing.

I too am shocked that they've allowed the new hearing, scheduled for 11th July. That poor, poor boy.

The judge stated the legal.work was being carried out probono. One of the GoFundMe accounts set up by the family was for legal fees and it was posted that £10,000 was moved to a family member's bank account for legal fees (the sister in laws account?). What happens to those donations now that it's been confirmed it's probono?

He had two cardiac arrests on June 6th and was resuscitated. That is a brutal process once but twice!? The one saving grace here seems to be that he is gone so didn't feel it at least. His mum claimed multiple times he has a DNR, I wonder if its only recently been put in place.

His mother has been in the press quite a bit over the years under her previous name.

So has his brother.

Hi folks

We're happy for this to be discussed within talk guidelines - we've reinstated it now.

Sorry about that and please do report anything you'd like us to look into.

i didn’t watch the hearing but I assume that they’ve determined that the previous hearing focused on the brain death issue but there was not enough analysis of best interests - which might seem obvious, but cannot be taken as an assumption.

A PP asked who the Guardian was for Archie… normally this would be a social worker from Cafcass.

I don't think it was suggested that everything was pro bono. If money has been raised it seems only fair that the lawyers should receive at least some payment.

As I understand it, that's correct. The Hospital Trust's lawyer tried to argue that the previous judge had had the best interests issue fully in mind but struggled to get past the fact that her judgment concentrated so much on the issue of whether Archie had died and only gave around four paragraphs to the best interests question.

One things the comes out of this is that the medical profession really need to get their act together on brain stem death testing. The reason that doubt arose was because they couldn't do the final test because they couldn't do the preliminary peripheral nerve stimulation which is a pre-requisite, which in turn meant that the test couldn't be accepted as reliable. But the reason they couldn't do the preliminary test was not because there was a problem specifically with his nerves, but because he had died. It seems extraordinary that that problem hadn't been encountered before, but it's bound to arise again. So they need to revisit the protocol and decide on what is and is not conclusive evidence of death in this area, and what alternative tests, if any, can be done when this one isn't possible.

I'm interested in Ella Carter's role in all of this, particularly after a judge pointing out that the court hasn't actually heard from the parents. She seems to be very much front and centre, withdrawing donated funds to her own bank account, she's very hostile to people asking questions on the Archie's Army page, and her giving evidence in court on behalf of the family seems quite inappropriate. Her involvement really doesn't seem proportionate to her role in the family. Is it Hollie or Ella steering this ship?

Yes, she hasn't even been the brother's girlfriend that long, has she?

Anyone else wondering whether someone from Archie's Army tried to get at MN? They do seem very paranoid about social networks that don't follow their agenda.

I suppose if there is legal consensus that Archie is dead, it could have been reasonably assumed that it’s not in his best interests to be kept ventilated.

Yes, she hasn't even been the brother's girlfriend that long, has she?

Im sure I read somewhere that she comes from a legal background??

It's hard to know for sure. Some people are saying she does, other people are saying that's not true.

She's only 20, the media references her as a student but I've seen a couple of people say she doesn't study law.

Tbf I think she'd be more careful about her online presence if she was a law student.

This is one of those cases that I've followed in the mainstream media and was a bit surprised at comments in regards to the family etc.

Digging a bit deeper I can see that there is a narrative the media want to push, and that there is a completely different story that they won't report on.

What I've read in mainstream media appears to be focused mainly on the medical and legal perspective with a brief paragraph giving details about Archie and what happened to him. There doesn't appear to be a story that they're not reporting on.