Archie Battersebee case-thread 2

[whynotwhatknot]

ongoing from previous thread

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4573803-archie-battersbee-case?page=40

There's a public group on Facebook. Just put in Archie Batterbee then click on communities (groups). It's the only one that comes up. The private one seems to have gone.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-62363780

Now appealing to the health secretary

That wording is horrific. Every time I’ve experienced the death of a child the whole unit I work on has a level of upset/emotion. Wether we have known that child for a few hours or years. Healthcare staff are human too. I’ve too often gone home and broke down after a bad shift. But held it together for patients and families while on duty.

I have so much sympathy for the family. But you can’t deny the vast amount of medical evidence forever. He isn’t going to just breathe and recover, he is being kept alive by that vent. He will finally pass away physically at least.

I hope the Trust has security plans and police close by this weekend/Monday and that the staff that work there are properly protected from any Army/family members that may appear.

Letter has now been sent as another last ditch appeal

to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Dear Mr Barclay,

You will be aware of the awful tragedy our family is going through since our son Archie suffered severe brain damage in April as a result of an online challenge gone wrong. We are grateful to doctors and nurses at Royal London Hospital for the treatment and care given to Archie in the past four months. However, I am sorry to say that throughout that period, our pain and distress has been being much aggravated by the actions of two or three senior doctors at the hospital, and the management of Barts Health NHS Trust.

From day one, the family as well as the treating clinicians have been put under daily pressure from the Trust to give up on Archie, withdraw life support and let him die. After only three weeks, we were dragged into Court at a few hours’ notice. Since then, throughout these three months, we have been rushed from one court hearing to another every few days, having to fight for Archie’s life against a generously funded army of lawyers and NHS managers.

Throughout these months, we were never given even a few days space to cope with the family tragedy. You will be aware that our case now is before the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who have last night issued an ‘Interim Measures’ injunction to the UK government to keep Archie alive while the Committee considers the case. Under Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Disability Convention, the interim measures are binding on the United Kingdom as a matter of international human rights law .

Devastatingly, the Trust’s lawyers have responded by telling the family that the Trust intends to defy the UN injunction and to proceed to remove life support from Archie as early as on Monday 1 August .

If this happens, this will be an extraordinary cruelty, and a flagrant breach of Archie’s rights as a disabled person. Archie is entitled to have the decisions about his life and death, taken by the NHS and UK courts, to be scrutinised by an international human rights body. Hastening his death to prevent that would be completely unacceptable .

I trust that you will now act immediately, as a member of the government responsible for the NHS, to ensure that this does not happen, and our country honours its obligations under the international human rights treaties which we have signed and ratified .

Christian Concern have shared the letter, which they say is from Hollie.

Dear Mr Barclay,

You will be aware of the awful tragedy our family is going through since our son Archie suffered severe brain damage in April as a result of an online challenge gone wrong. We are grateful to doctors and nurses at Royal London Hospital for the treatment and care given to Archie in the past four months. However, I am sorry to say that throughout that period, our pain and distress has been being much aggravated by the actions of two or three senior doctors at the hospital, and the management of Barts Health NHS Trust.

From day one, the family as well as the treating clinicians have been put under daily pressure from the Trust to give up on Archie, withdraw life support and let him die. After only three weeks, we were dragged into Court at a few hours’ notice. Since then, throughout these three months, we have been rushed from one court hearing to another every few days, having to fight for Archie’s life against a generously funded army of lawyers and NHS managers.

Throughout these months, we were never given even a few days space to cope with the family tragedy. You will be aware that our case now is before the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who have last night issued an ‘Interim Measures’ injunction to the UK government to keep Archie alive while the Committee considers the case. Under Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Disability Convention, the interim measures are binding on the United Kingdom as a matter of international human rights law.
Devastatingly, the Trust’s lawyers have responded by telling the family that the Trust intends to defy the UN injunction and to proceed to remove life support from Archie as early as on Monday 1 August.

If this happens, this will be an extraordinary cruelty, and a flagrant breach of Archie’s rights as a disabled person. Archie is entitled to have the decisions about his life and death, taken by the NHS and UK courts, to be scrutinised by an international human rights body. Hastening his death to prevent that would be completely unacceptable.
**
I trust that you will now act immediately, as a member of the government responsible for the NHS, to ensure that this does not happen, and our country honours its obligations under the international human rights treaties which we have signed and ratified.

The poor doctors and nurses who have provided round the clock care, only to be targeted with such vitriol and now actively blamed as part of 'the hospital' for rushing things along.

I can't imagine how hard this has been for them already having to provide care to someone who has passed, knowing it is not a dignified or appropriate thing but being forced to do so due to the ongoing legal challenges.

Knowing they could be caring for a child who has the opportunity to live, who may be missing out on a bed and precious hours of care in an underfunded NHS with a bed shortage.

To be spoken of this way by the mother of the child they have been caring for, knowing he won't wake up, must be absolutely gutting for them.

He's not disabled though, he's brain dead. There's an ocean between the two.

That statement is beyond insulting....

so inflammatory of his mother,
execute
how awful

She really is grasping for any length of rope she can get isn’t she.

He isn’t disabled. Not in the least.

The hospital must be very confident that the UN will decline to extend the request/injunction (depending on what news source you read) and the planned withdrawel will go ahead.

They will also be very confident that Archie will in no way shape or form "wake up" and have them panicing and 'look so bad.'

I'm hoping the answer is "No" but has Hollie released any more photos of Archie ? Because at the moment only the family and hosptal staff are witness to his bodily decline . If anyone did say "Hollie look at him, he is not going to wake" she'd ignore it anyway .

Security will be high there
And once the inevitable happens hopefully the post mortem will explain to her that her son is long term dead.

Then there will be an inquest as to what happened ( which will be a whole new can of worms )

I think this is the end of days now. Life support will be removed with or without the support of the parents before too much longer.

I said upthread that they would end up saying that Archie was being executed. Seems I was right.

Remarkable that they’ve gone to the health secretary after the UN.

Since when have doctors and nurses been in the business of executing child patients. Disgusting wording

Is she currrently making a shortlist of news channels and TV shows she'll do interviews for ?
Who will be on her PurpleWave Length ?

Rather than spend time with her child ?

That comment is horrific, yes she’s grieving but to show such disdain and contempt for the staff who have cared for Archie for the past few months is disgusting.

Thing is that nobody is challenging those comments.

Last night half the thread ended up being deleted. Wouldn’t surprise me if more posts criticising the wording are deleted at some point.

Unfortunately I imagine that once the life support is removed the police will become involved wrt investigating what happened, and who knows where that will end.

I feel very conflicted about all this. I wish Hollie had some sensible family members to support her through this. It's awful to watch her torment on show for all the world to see and yet I can't look away. I feel so sorry for Archie and how different his life could have been. I wonder about life and if we have a soul and where his soul is now.

I have felt angry with Archie's family and the choices they have made and the things they have said but there's also an awful vulnerability about them.

I’ve seen people challenge them on CC page and DFA page.

Their to go line is “well, such and such woke up after being told they wouldn’t”.

They don’t seem to understand it’s not the same. With the brain literally dead, and not just dead, but rotting, it’s clear this is not the same type of situation.

Archie will never wake up. Ever. There is a zero chance he will wake.

What Hollie doesn’t seem to realise is, if a miracle happened and he did wake up, he would have no quality of life.

I have just seen on the front page of the Mail online that the hospital will turn off life support at 2 pm on Monday.

Appalling. Poor Archie. I wonder what his big brother thinks to all this?
I had some tricky families to deal with when I was a nurse (not ITU) and the dread of each shift was awful and that was minuscule compared to what the poor staff are experiencing here. Shame on anyone who is encouraging this toxic circus.

Christ they shouldn’t have done that.

AA will be at the hospital now barricading the doors to stop anyone from turning it off.

Fuck the other people in the hospital though right.

I'm amazed they have published the time. Surely that will lead to crowds of supporters outside the hospital. But then Hollie would have told the press herself anyway I suppose. I'd be scared to go to work on Monday. My thoughts are more with the staff caring for Archie especially whoever it is that flicks the switch. I hope the staff have access to counselling and don't decide to quit after being treated like scum for doing their job.

I wonder if he was allowed to go peacefully months ago his organs could have been donated and he could have lived on in other people? However if that had happened and the way his Mum is behaving she would have tried to hound the recipients.