A four-year-old boy who was taken off life support in April despite desperate pleas from his parents has made a miraculous improvement.
The boy, who was born with severe disabilities and cannot see or hear, had been kept alive by machines since 2023 after suffering a serious brain infection that triggered two heart attacks.
But his Christian parents lost their High Court appeal against King’s College Hospital NHS Trust earlier this year to send him to a Vatican-backed hospital in Italy for further treatment.
At the time, the judge ruled that the boy, whose name cannot be released, should not be “forced to live” as the burden on the child “far outweighed the benefits.”
However, within a matter of months his condition improved and he returned home.
In April, the boy’s Christian parents lost their High Court petition against King’s College Hospital NHS Trust earlier this year to send him to a Vatican-backed hospital in Italy.
Judge Poole, who visited the boy in hospital before allowing doctors to stop treatment, has now also revoked his approval to limit the treatment.
He no longer needs a catheter, is receiving nutrition intravenously and is breathing normally, according to a new report from the judge.
Judge Poole, who visited the boy in hospital before allowing doctors to stop treatment, has now also revoked his approval to limit the treatment.
“He has upset all medical expectations and his case underlines the maxim that ‘medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability’,” he added.
King’s College Hospital also accepted that it would not have sought permission to withhold treatment if the boy had been “in his present condition and circumstances”.
The judge said the case was “highly unusual and raises some challenging issues for the court which must be addressed openly and objectively.”
He also said the lawyers “were unable to point to any reported case where a child survived for months after life-sustaining treatment was withdrawn following a court decision.”
But after “anxiously reflecting” on his earlier sentence in April, he was satisfied it had been “justified” based on the evidence presented.
At the time, Judge Poole ruled that the boy’s “parents'” love and devotion to him was so strong that they could not accept what those less personally connected could see.
He added: “That is to say, the burdens on him of treating him to keep him alive far outweigh the benefits, and it is in his best interest for him to stop treatment to keep him alive.”
The boy’s parents, identified only as Mr and Mrs R, in April called the decision to cause his death by choice “totally unethical.”
Responding to the ruling being overturned this week, Ms R said: ‘Our basic point is that statistics don’t help.
‘It would be more honest if doctors would acknowledge that this is an individual that medical science doesn’t really understand and that’s not a good basis for predicting what this small, complicated child can do.
‘(The boy) survived when the doctors and nurses who cared for him for months thought he would not be able to.
“He has a right to live. We believe he has a strong will to live and that his life is good.”
The change came after her parents requested the removal of permitted “treatment ceilings.”
The boy’s case is the latest high-profile end-of-life hearing to come to the Royal Courts of Justice, following equally tense battles over the treatment of children including Indi Gregory, Archie Battersbee (pictured), Isaiah Haastrup and Charlie Gard.
Last year, eight-month-old Indi Gregory, who had an incurable genetic mitochondrial disease, died after being taken off life support.
In his ruling, the judge added that although the boy “continues to suffer the burdens of his condition and some of the treatments… there is also evidence that he is now able to derive pleasure from his life at home with his parents.”
But he also said it was unclear how he had managed to defy the expectations of the medical professionals who treated him.
The boy’s case is the latest high-profile end-of-life hearing to come to the Royal Courts of Justice, following similarly tense battles over the treatment of children including Indi Gregory, Archie Battersbee, Isaiah Haastrup and Charlie Gard.
Last year, eight-month-old Indi, who suffered from an incurable genetic mitochondrial disease, died after being taken off life support.
Her heartbroken parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, were unable to persuade judges at the High Court and Court of Appeal in London or judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, to keep her on the machines.
Indi, who was born on 24 February 2023, suffered from a rare, incurable and degenerative mitochondrial disease that meant her cells did not produce enough energy.
Doctors said Indi was in a lot of pain and distress and there was nothing more they could do for her.
Upon hearing that doctors had decided to remove Indi from life support, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni even granted him citizenship and Rome’s Bambino Gesu children’s hospital offered to administer treatment.
But the court judges ruled that life-sustaining treatment could only be withdrawn in a hospital or hospice, not at the family home.
