Archie Battersbee,12, was comatose in a United Kingdom hospital and died after a lengthy legal battle between doctors and the boy’s parents.
A court determined doctors could remove him from life support.
He died around noon on Saturday, nearly two hours after doctors discontinued treating him. Young Archie had been in a coma since April 7, after he was found unconscious in the family’s home.
Ella Carter, the fiancée of Archie’s brother, Tom, said the family witnessed the boy’s final moments.
“He went completely blue,” she said. “There is absolutely nothing dignified about watching a family member or a child suffocate. No family should ever have to go through what we’ve been through. It’s barbaric.”
Battersbee’s situation became was the latest legal battle that pitted the will of parents against the advice of doctors.
His parents pushed to keep their son alive by extending treatment or moving Archie to a hospice, but doctors argued it was in Archie’s best interest to be removed from life support.
Doctors at the Royal London Hospital said the child was brain-stem dead and should be allowed to die. They urged them to end the treatment that kept him living, which included artificial respiration, medication to regulate his bodily functions, and round-the-clock nursing care, Fox News reported.
The hospital testified that Archie’s condition was unstable and felt moving him would hasten his death.
A stance Archie’s family objected to and said they would not give up hope.
On Friday, High Court Judge Lucy Theis ruled in favor of the doctors, despite it was against the parents’ wishes, and ruled Archie should remain in the hospital and for his treatment to be withdrawn.
“Their unconditional love and dedication to Archie is a golden thread that runs through this case,″ Theis wrote in her decision. “I hope now Archie can be afforded the opportunity for him to die in peaceful circumstances, with the family who meant so much to him as he clearly does to them.” The European Court of Human Rights refused to get involved in the case.
A tearful Hollie Dance, who is Battersbee’s mother, said she was “the proudest mum in the world.”
“Such a beautiful little boy, and he fought right until the very end,” she added.
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