Archie Battersbee

Yes MOnica I saw it reported that his organs were now beginning to fail.
I think it is such a shame that this family crisis has been played out in full glare of publicity, but can sympathise with how devastated and powerless the parents must be feeling.
I heard an interview where his mother said they have the advice of a specialist in the US who has given them hope of the possibility of improvement.
Who knows how one would behave at the thought of losing a beloved child?

I lost my darling daughter to cancer and believe me I would have done anything to keep her alive.

Peartree

I think the parents have the hope of a miracle & they can’t let go of that, no matter what doctors say. I really feel for them.

I know what should be done, but to pull the plug on your child, to say this is it, I think I would probably hold on in there despite knowing it’s hopeless. I feel so much for those parents, for the medical team that care and want it to be different, I bet they shed tears. I pray for a miracle, they do happen.

We can't possibly put ourselves in that position unless we have experienced it.

This. I'd like to think I could make the decision but, the deeper I think about it, the less sure I am that I could.

They have been told in the latest Supreme court judgment, they must withdraw life support.
He has lost all bodily functions, and can't support life.
Such a shame, poor lad and poor family.
Let's hope the family gives permission that some organs are able to be harvest so someone else can live.

Peartree My sympathy to you. I have seen a mother's loss through my own mother, and any parent' would do anything to keep their child alive. But at times that is not possible, or clinical death has already occurred. This is the case here.

It is clear this child's body is already physically dying despite the life support system and the end will come within a few weeks anyway,no matter with or wthout the life support system.

I heard an interview where his mother said they have the advice of a specialist in the US who has given them hope of the possibility of improvement.,

but nothing is known of this specialist, who he is, what his expertise is, whether he has discussed the case with Archie's doctors and he will not have examined Archie. These experts seem to turn up with every case like this, only to later say they didn't have the full case notes and couldn't help or are shown to be charlatans, exploiting the suffering parents

There have been a few of these tragic cases over the past few years and each one is desperately sad.
I remember little Charlie Guard a few years ago.
The matter is also complicated if a so called expert in another country claims to be able to help the child. Which one of us though wouldn’t snatch at any offer of help even if doctors here say there is no hope of a good recovery?

I also remember a case concerning a family from, I think, Southampton. Their little boy had cancer and after extensive research, the parents wanted the hospital to try proton beam therapy.
When the hospital here refused that treatment, the parents ‘snatched’ him and took him to I think Spain where they had a second home.
They managed to get their little boy the treatment there and I’m pretty sure it was a complete success.
Who knows what the outcome would have been for that child if the parents hadn’t done their own research and come up with alternative treatment ?
Obviously though that was a completely different scenario to Archie.

I think it’s so much harder for these parents as the young chap was a perfectly healthy child indeed an excellent athlete and after being in his bedroom was found unresponsive The parents have presumed it was something he was involved in on the Internet but is that a fact? the suddenness of it all the unknown details must be terribly difficult to take in to understand and to accept It would be very different if the lad had had an illness or condition

It is a decision I have had to make twice for close family, though not with a child. In both cases the brain had ceased to function.

Although it was clear that there was no hope of recovery, support was givento enable us to come together and say goodbye to a person who had the semblance of still being there. It was a compassionate act on the part of the medical staff.

But neither of them were alive in any real sense. If the machine had not existed they would have died when their brain ceased to function. You can keep the body, a breath, a heartbeat, going but death has already happened.

If our cases like these become frequent then I think medical staff will be reluctant to give families the goodbye time that was given to us. It was not time for the patients benefit, there was nothing that could be done to help them, but to try to make it easier for the family.

I would pray for any of my boys and fight for them till the end. But I would be like them I know I would sometimes hope is all you have. My heart goes out to them.

What I don’t understand is doctors says inconclusively that Archie’s body will break down and die naturally within a short space of time, a few weeks Why not let this happen, then his parents can see him have a natural death and have no one to blame

Pear tree so sad for you.

There is, in theory, no limit to how long a body can be kept in a functioning state on life support. All the necessary functions are carried out by the machine.

What happens is that the major organs, which are no longer in use, begin to decay and the body starts to rot from the inside. I’m sorry to be so blunt but that is what happens. There is no “natural death” on life support.

BlueBelle

What I don’t understand is doctors says inconclusively that Archie’s body will break down and die naturally within a short space of time, a few weeks Why not let this happen, then his parents can see him have a natural death and have no one to blame

That is what the parents have said they would want.
It sounds reasonable enough to me.

They feel it is all being rushed through.

Is there any grans who think this tragic situation shouldn't be up for discussion on Gransnet....I know I do....

MissAdventure

BlueBelle

What I don’t understand is doctors says inconclusively that Archie’s body will break down and die naturally within a short space of time, a few weeks Why not let this happen, then his parents can see him have a natural death and have no one to blame

That is what the parents have said they would want.
It sounds reasonable enough to me.

They feel it is all being rushed through.

I can this be 'natural death'. Explained well by Lathyrus, thank you..

Mine

Is there any grans who think this tragic situation shouldn't be up for discussion on Gransnet....I know I do....

It is in the papers, on tv, no doubt elsewhere.
I would imagine his parents realise this, and hope that it may generate discussion, and perhaps support, or at least understanding of their situation.

I don't understand why they wont let the family transfer him to a hospice. It migt help everyone concerned and it will be peaceful

Hospices don’t have the high tech capabilities of an ICU life support unit. It is a vast amount of machinery and support equipment.

And expertise.

I think I just saw on the news that Archie is to be going to a hospice now.

The family have said that they want him moved to a hospice.

That would mean removing the machinery and staff from the hospital to the Hospice. I’m not sure how possible it would be.

I fear they haven’t grasped what life support actually means.

Oh dear Lathyrus surely that’s not possible because then it’s taking the machine away from someone who may have a chance
I can see it from both sides perhaps I wouldn’t if it was my child or grandchild