The Charlie Gard story is becoming increasingly sad, dispiriting and, I’m afraid, unpleasant as legal action follows unwelcome interventions follow more legal action. The condition of this poor boy appears to have deteriorated still further, with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) saying today that the latest scan made for “sad reading”. This comment was made by GOSH’s lawyer, to which Charlie’s father Chris shouted “Evil”. I am not a medical expert, but I find it hard to believe that the doctors at a world class children’s hospital would do anything that was not in the child’s interest.
The news that “campaigners” have been shouting and chanting outside the hospital has seen the parents of other sick children complaining about their behaviour. Charlie Gard’s tragic story seems to have closed the minds of some people who appear to have overlooked the fact that actually there are hundreds of other children at GOSH with problems, some not as bad, some equally as bad and, tragically, some even worse. This madness has to stop.
Accusing the doctors and nurses of lying to the media about Charlie’s condition helps no one. Imagine if you were employed at the hospital and made, or agreed with, detailed medical opinion and then got called a liar, albeit by very desperate people? It’s not as if the doctors have an axe to grind. They want the best for this little boy, as doctors, as human beings. They are not trying to kill him, but to express their considered view that it would be Charlie’s interests to let him die naturally. Ethically, they can announce an alternative view they know to be untrue. They are the experts who have terrible news to impart.
The last thing this sad case needed was for Donald Trump to get involved, or indeed the Pope who will, as a fanatical religious person, argue for the sanctity of life even if the life he believes in means nothing more than life for life’s sake. Speaking personally, I don’t consider life to mean not being able to see, hear, swallow or communicate in any way at all. Add to that irreversible brain damage and who wants a child to grow up with that lot?
A US doctor, one Michio Hirano, has met with GOSH officials and doctors this week to discuss taking Charlie to America for “experimental treatment”. It should be pointed out that this treatment does not represent a cure. It has never been used on anyone with Charlie’s condition and any life he did have if it somehow worked, whatever worked means in this case, would not be anything like normal.
It’s awful, really awful and it is worth adding there are a lot of things we do not know about, particularly for instance the identity of the person who attends court every day with Charlie’s mother Connie Yates which cannot be revealed because of a court order. We do not know if it is significant or remotely relevant but it suggests we don’t know the full story.
I am very uncomfortable with the whole thing, if I am being honest. I am glad it is not my decision, although I do know the decision I would make if I was in the same position as the Gards. But I repeat, the one thing that keeps coming back to me over and over again, is why you would fly in the face of overwhelming medical opinion from staff at one of the greatest hospitals in the world who care only for the people they treat. Treatment does not mean cure and that’s a distinction that the media does not make.
It is certainly not good guys versus bad guys, which some people seem to be suggesting. It is a human tragedy which gets worse by the day and, one way or another, will not end well.
