Archie Battersbee: Family of boy ruled dead seeks appeal

The mother of a 12-year-old boy in a coma said she told him they faced "the biggest battle of our lives" as they seek to appeal against a ruling his life-support treatment should stop.

Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at his home in Southend, Essex, on 7 April.

Last week the High Court agreed with doctors at the Royal London Hospital that he was "brain-stem dead".

His relatives are back in court seeking permission to mount an appeal.

The boy's parents have said they wanted treatment to continue as his heart was still beating.

Archie's mother Hollie Dance said she was "devastated" by the ruling that his treatment should stop.

She told BBC Breakfast that she sleeps by his hospital bed each night.

"He's so beautiful - he's angelic. It's no different to at home. He looks peaceful - he's asleep," Ms Dance said.

His mother said she talked to Archie every day and had told him "you really need to wake up now because we've got the biggest battle of our lives and it'll be really great if you actually helped me".

She said she had felt him squeeze her hand.

"He's in there, physically, for whatever reason, whether it's locked-in syndrome, whether he's paralysed... I don't know, but I feel he's in there," she said.

Asked if she was concerned she might be prolonging the agony for her son, Ms Dance said: "No... I would be more worried if I gave up and spent the rest of my life thinking 'what if I'd held on just that little bit longer?'.

"I think that nobody has Archie's best interest at heart like a mother.

"Inside, I'm broken - but I've got to go fight or flight - I haven't got time to think about my feelings, my emotions at the minute, because this is a fight for Archie's life."

At the High Court in London last week, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot ruled that doctors could lawfully stop providing treatment for Archie.

In a written ruling, the judge concluded Archie died at noon on 31 May based on MRI scans that day.

A spokesman for campaign organisation the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Archie's family, said relatives will use Monday's follow-up hearing at the High Court to ask the same judge to let them mount the appeal.

Relatives must establish they have an arguable case before a full appeal hearing can take place.

Members of Archie's family want Court of Appeal judges to reconsider the case.

It's possible the judge will grant them permission to appeal... if she doesn't, it's possible the Court of Appeal will grant permission... and then there would be a full hearing before three judges.

But I don't want to raise Hollie Dance's hope because I think the Court of Appeal is very likely to say that the High Court judge saw all the medical evidence, she considered the law - and unless it can be shown that she made some mistake in assessing the law, it's very unlikely that they will reach a different conclusion from the conclusion that she, the High Court judge, reached.

In Archie's home city, a vigil and a one-minute silence took place on Southend's sea front on Sunday.

Dozens attended the event, which organisers said was held "to show the family support within the community".

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