Archie, a boy who has been in a deep coma for months, has died in a London hospital after a long legal battle. The measures that kept the 12-year-old alive ended on Saturday. Archie died at 12:15 p.m. (local time), his mother Hollie Dance said in the afternoon outside the hospital. He fought to the end. According to his family, Archie's medication was taken off at 10am before the ventilators were removed two hours later.
Archie has been in a coma since April. In an accident at home in Southend-on-Sea around 60 kilometers east of London, he suffered serious brain injuries, possibly during an Internet test of courage. The treating doctors saw no chance of recovery. At the Royal London Hospital, he was kept alive with ventilators and medication, among other things.
The parents had fought in vain to have the devices switched off. Most recently, they failed on Friday before the Court of Appeal in London and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg with applications to move him from the hospital to a hospice. With this they wanted to ensure that their son could experience his last hours in a quieter, more peaceful environment. The hospital had previously denied this due to his unstable condition.
The Court of Appeal also stated that it was in the boy's best interest that life support be removed in the hospital rather than in another setting. The court in Strasbourg stated that the application did not fall within its jurisdiction.
"All legal avenues have been exhausted," a spokesman for Christian Concern, a Christian organization that supports Archie's family, told Sky News. The family was "devastated".
