Baby Alfie cannot be saved

A High Court judge has ruled baby Alfie Evans life support will be switched off despite a last minute bid by his parents to take him abroad for treatment.

The 23-month-old boy has a degenerative brain disease and doctors say it is kinder to let him die.

Bosses at Alder Hay Hospital in Liverpool took the case back to the High Court to ask the judge to determine when Alfie’s treatment should officially be withdrawn, after the Court of Appeal last month ruled it should be stopped.

His parents Tom Evans and Kate James, from Liverpool, say judges could end their toddler’s life ‘within hours’ in a High Court case that echoes the tragic death of Charlie Gard.

Mr Justice Hayden watched videos sent by Alfie’s parents that they say show him ‘improving’.

The judge said he was not able to give a medical opinion and was watching them out of ‘courtesy and kindness’.

He set a date for Alfie’s life support to be turned off, which cannot be published.

Mr Justice Hayden said: ‘Lady Justice King in the Court of Appeal on 8 March circumscribed my role today as to help broker if possible or to determine if necessary the terms of the end of life plan and the date for withdrawal of artificial ventilation.

‘Every word of this case so far has been in the public domain but this aspect seems to me to now be so exquisitely personal and private that the public interest must give way on these matters to Alfie’s privacy.’

The latest court hearing was arranged after Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said agreements with Alfie’s parents over turning off his ventilator had ‘broken down’.

The hospital is legally required to go back to the court to determine when Alfie’s treatment should be withdrawn.

At a meeting on 4 April with hospital officials and North West England MEP Steven Woolfe, Alfie’s father presented ‘fresh evidence’ to show his son’s condition was improving.

Mr Evans said he believed the decision on ending life support was on hold for the hospital to reconsider as there had been ‘physical changes’ to Alfie in the six weeks since the ruling.

The family’s barrister Paul Diamond asked Mr Justice Hayden to look at the videos in a last minute bid to get a new independent assessment of Alfie’s condition.

Mr Diamond said: ‘Mr Evans says the last three weeks, the reducing of drug intake, he thinks his son is showing signs of cognitive improvement.

‘We do think there’s scope for negotiation. Tom Evans is entirely shocked by this progressive consultation, they thought as reasonable people it should be explored, this offer by the Italian hospital. They think there’s undue haste being taken on this for some reasons they don’t understand.’

Mr Justice Hayden watched the videos in private out of what he described as ‘courtesy and kindness’.

He said: ‘Alfie is a little boy with a neuro-degenerative condition and that condition has degenerated his brain and it is irreparable. All doctors here, in Germany and in Italy agreed on this – the brain can not regenerate itself.

‘I ask myself if I were in a bed in a hospital in that condition, would I want video of myself in the public domain? And I dont have any difficulty answering that in the negative, so I find myself wondering why it’s right for Alfie.

‘I’m not in any way qualified to gainsay a medical opinion. It would be entirely inappropriate to do so. But out of courtesy and, I hope, kindness to Tom and Kate, I will watch it.’

The videos were said to show Alfie’s mother Kate putting chocolate in his mouth from the tip of her finger, which Mr Michael Mylonas QC, representing Alder Hey, said was ‘dangerous’.

‘We are concerned that one of the videos shows Kate providing Alfie with food by mouth. There’s a significant risk of aspiration’, he said.

Mr Mylonas said Alfie now had ‘bilateral pneumonia’ which may be as a result of trying to give Alfie the ‘taste stimulus’.

The High Court ruled Alfie Evans will be taken off life support on a date and location that cannot be reported.

Earlier today Mr Justice Hayden warned that Evans ‘may come to regret’ posting the videos he filmed of his son on the hospital ward.
ends