The British boy Archie Battersbee, who had been brain-dead since last April, allegedly due to a challenge on TikTok, and who was the center of a family legal battle to keep him alive, died this Saturday after the mechanisms of assisted breathing, said the mother, Hollie Dance.
The minor, 12 years old and whose case was the center of media attention, died around 12:15 (local time) at the Royal London Hospital, in the east of the British capital.
In a statement to the media outside the hospital, the mother said her son "fought to the end."
“I want to say that I am the proudest mother in the world.
He was a precious child.
He fought until the end and I am so proud to be his mother, ”
said the mother between sobs.
Archie Battersbee, age 12.AP
The family had undertaken a long legal process, with numerous resources, to keep the little boy alive, who had been brain dead since he was found unconscious on April 7 at his home in Southend, Essex county (southeast England). .
['July without poop': the viral TikTok challenge that worries doctors]
Archie was found with a rope tied around his head and it is estimated that he
may have suffered an accident when he participated in some viral challenge
through the TikTok social network known as
Blackout Challenge
.
In recent months, the family sought legal action to prevent the hospital from withdrawing, as the health unit wanted, the assisted breathing devices, considering that they had no chance of recovery.
Archie Battersbee's mother, Hollie Dance, center, speaks to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on July 25.AP
After several appeals in the British courts and the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights, which proved the hospital right, the family also tried unsuccessfully in recent days to allow Archie to be taken from the hospital to a hospice so that he could die. in this place, away from the noise of Royal London.
[A mother sues TikTok over the death of her 10-year-old daughter during a viral challenge]
The last effort in this direction was exhausted last night after the European Court of Human Rights indicated that the case of transfer to a hospice was "outside" its jurisdiction.
The hospital argued that placing Archie in a hospice was risky because a slight movement of the body could further aggravate his condition.
They investigate whether a TikTok challenge with a toy gun caused the death of a teenager
July 22, 202202:19
A spokesman for the group Christian Concern, which supports Archie's family, acknowledged that "all legal routes" had been exhausted and that the relatives were "broken".
During the court proceedings, British judges reiterated that continuing to offer vital support to the boy was "against his best interests".
Judge Lucy Theis, of the family division of the High Court of London, highlighted, when denying the transfer to the hospice,
the "unconditional love and dedication"
of the family and stressed that she hoped that the child had the opportunity to die in peace.
With information from Eph.