The parents of a 12-year-old boy who was left in a coma after suffering "catastrophic" brain damage, allegedly due to a challenge on social networks, lost a legal appeal in the United Kingdom on Monday to prevent doctors from disconnecting him from artificial respiration.
Three judges on the Court of Appeal have ruled on what is best for Archie Battersbee, who was found unconscious in his home on April 7.
His mother, Hollie Dance, stated that she believed he had tried to hold his breath following a viral trend on TikTok known as the
Blackout Challenge.
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Doctors treating the minor at the Royal London Hospital stated that he is brain dead and believe that continuing life support treatment is not in his best interest.
His parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, filed an appeal after two High Court judges agreed with the doctors.
One of them, Magistrate Anthony Hayden, described what happened as a "tragedy of immeasurable dimensions", but noted that the medical evidence was "convincing and unanimous" and painted a "bleak" picture in which to continue treatment, he said. It would only prolong his agony.
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The three appellate judges dismissed the parents' attempt to overturn that sentence.
The mother said that she had seen signs that the boy, connected to a ventilator, had tried to breathe independently twice in the last few days.
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But appellate judge Andrew McFarlane stressed that medical staff had seen "no sign of life" in the boy.
McFarlane and the other two appeal magistrates said they will delay the end of the treatment for 48 hours so that her parents can apply to the European Court of Human Rights for protection.
