Archie Battersbee

Deeda, that’s the thing, if Archie’s mum had been able to listen and hear what the medical team were saying, it could have all been calmer

Deedaa

I agree with MOnica when you read the details it is clear that Archie was never going to survive. There was never going to be a miracle recovery or a new therapy that would repair the damage done to his brain. Unfortunately his mother does seem to have been influenced by a pro life church who have encouraged unrealistic hopes . If she had listened to the doctors who had been liaising with specialists all over the country I think the whole thing could have been handled in a way that would have been better for her and poor Archie.

Yes, MOnica has been the voice of reason and calm.

I have just come off Facebook, having read some of the comments under the latest news, I've been depressed at the sheer ignorance of some of the posters, and at the vitriol being spouted against those medical professionals who have been treating and looking after Archie.

I had to come back here and read GNs' more temperate observations to regain my equilibrium.

Surely now the time has come for action against those responsible for putting these “challenges” or whatever they’re called online and likewise those responsible for websites detailing self harm or suicide methods. It must be possible with the technology around that the websites are removed and those responsible prosecuted. FaceBook censor accounts so why not Tick Tock?

pieinthesky

Surely now the time has come for action against those responsible for putting these “challenges” or whatever they’re called online and likewise those responsible for websites detailing self harm or suicide methods. It must be possible with the technology around that the websites are removed and those responsible prosecuted. FaceBook censor accounts so why not Tick Tock?

There is NO evidence that this was a TicToc challenge. It is pure speculation.

It seems there is another side to this story. I was told to look into the mothers background and I think you will find some interesting facts.

Pieinthesky there is no evidence that he was doing a challenge TikTok have completely refuted it
I think it was the mothers idea and it has grown legs and run blame is obviously a way of coping

I have just done so kircubbin….yes indeed!

kircubbin2000

It seems there is another side to this story. I was told to look into the mothers background and I think you will find some interesting facts.

Nothing which in any way means that she didn't love her child as much as any other mother.

I am not interested in the background but I am interested in unreliable scare stories doing the rounds and making parents needlessly frightened.

There does seem to be a tendency these days, certainly in several high profile cases recently, for people to decide on their own version of events and then if the law or the facts contradict this, to demand that the laws are changed, judges sacked etc. Feelings seem to overrule facts.

I have felt it particularly over this case because i read the legal judgements, and the immense detail they went into about the medical condition of this child.

In the past these cases have usually involved children with life limiting illnesses or genetic problems and, it is possible to understand why, despite everything the doctors say, parents keep clinging on to hope, but in this case, it was so obvious from very early on that this child's case was hopeless.

This child's mother's rationale seemed to be that she loved her child so much that what was happening shouldn't be happening, therefore it wasn't and the doctors had got it all wrong. i do not write this to diminish her grief in any way. No matter how you look at it, she is a mother who has lost her son and she grieves as all mothers do.

But this tragic case does, highlight a tendency now to not accept that life cannot always be as you want it and if it isn't you can reimagine it and make everyone else run with your version, even the law.

Yes, I’m amazed at how breezily the media have just repeated what Hollie Dance and her backers told them.
I’m wondering if their will be a backlash now.
It’s going to be a dreadful time for Dance, quite apart from the death of her son.
Thank goodness Max Clifford isn’t around anymore.
(Remember that poor woman in the 80’s who was pregnant with eight (I think) babies?)

No doubt at all that everything the woman has ever done will be bought out and aired, now.
I've already read some sort of "headline" that she was on (shock! Horror!!) Universal credit.

It's also a problem with thinking there are simple solutions to complex problems. In this case its been decided its internet challenges. It was similar in the terrible case of David Amess. Following his death it was somehow decided that internet abuse of MPs was the problem (despite it having zero link with his murder). This isnt to say there arent issues with internet challenges or the trolling of MPs on social media but linking them to a particular tragedy is not helpful.

His mother has said Archie fought so hard to the last breathe but the little chaps end happened on the day he put something round his neck she has fought to the end but unfortunately has been totally deaf to any medical or judicial advise Part of me can understand that and part of me hopes I would be more humble to listen to professionals and be led by them however hard
I think she holds a lot of (perceived) guilt because it happened on her watch
Although I can understand fully that she was wanting to hold on to every scrap of hope you would like to think in the long run she would have accepted that Archie was not coming back from this and let him go without all the stress and bad vibes surrounding his death and the awful mud slinging of the very people who have done so much for the lad

Miss Adventure Universial Credit ? Does she live in rented accommodation and did she leave school without A’levels ?

Maybe she felt guilty that she wasn’t there to stop her son doing what he did, or that she somehow should have know he was looking at dodgy sites ( if indeed he was? ) or that she could have just stopped him doing it for whatever reason he did do it? ( we’ll probably never know )
Guilt & grief are a terrible combination and can make people act irrationally.
Strong emotions of any kind make people act in a way they wouldn’t normally ( ‘madly’ in love for example )

I just hope the family eventually find peace, but they will need plenty of help, especially the mother.

I expect so, Annie.
Straight down to the nearest nail bar to get her gels put on.
It's really distasteful, isn't it, to somehow think her grief is "less than"...?

I agree Allsorts it’s not useful unless it’s a known fact I think the mother jumped to that conclusion but why ??? And the press have run with it
Does the father say much I don’t subscribe to any newspapers so only get the bare bones to stories ( often on here) I don’t hear his name mentioned so much although I know he’s been involved to the end

Galaxy

I am not interested in the background but I am interested in unreliable scare stories doing the rounds and making parents needlessly frightened.

Why are you interested in 'unreliable scare stories' doing the rounds?

The grief of losing a child certainly made me feel unhinged, at times.
It is beyond any pain I have ever or will ever experience.
I worried about my own sanity in the beginning. (And I'm not entirely certain now, at times)

Lemsip I think that Galaxy is referring to Archie’s death being blamed on an internet challenge.
There is no evidence at all for this.
It seems more likely that Archie was attempting to take his own life.

MissA ♥️

MissAdventure
So very sorry to read your post. xx

I just think with slightest glimmer of hope, and backing from others to do so, I could have been swayed to keep pushing against the inevitable.

Yes, me too.