Charlie Gard's mother returns to High Court in fresh appeal to allow son's 'last precious moments' to be spent at home

Fresh appeal: Connie Yates returns to High Court
AP
Fiona Simpson25 July 2017

Charlie Gard's mother has returned to court in a bid to persuade a judge to let her terminally ill baby die at home.

Lawyers today told a High Court judge that Connie Yates and Charlie's father, Chris Gard, wanted to fulfil their "last desire" to let their 11-month-old son die in his own cot.

They said Ms Yates and Mr Gard wanted to take Charlie - who suffers from a rare genetic disease and brain damage - home, and indicated that Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors thought such a move would be problematic.

Barrister Grant Armstrong, who represents the couple, suggested to Mr Justice Francis that hospital bosses were placing obstacles in Charlie's parents' way.

Judge Mr Justice Francis added: "These are issues which cry out for settlement."

The parents want to take Charlie Gard home to spend their final moments with the terminally ill baby
PA

The hospital's lawyers told the court that bosses wanted to fulfil Charlie's parents' "last desire" but the judge indicated that there were practical difficulties including the size of Charlie's ventilator which may not fit through the couple's front door.

He said they had suggested a "hospice option".

Mr Justice Francis is overseeing the latest dispute at a public hearing in the Family Division of the High Court.

He suggested that the hearing could be staged behind closed doors.

But Ms Yates said she wanted the dispute aired in public.

Mr Gard was not at the hearing

On Monday, Charlie's parents ended a long legal battle to persuade a judge to allow the 11-month-old to travel to America for experimental therapy to treat mitochondrial DNA depletion.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates speak to the media after ending their legal fight to take Charlie to the US for experimental treatment
Getty Images

The latest hearing comes as campaigners called for doctors to allow the couple to take their son home to Bedfont, west London, before switching off his life support machine.

The twitter feed for their campaign website, Charlie’s Fight, today responded “Yes!” when asked whether they should be allowed to bring Charlie home for his final moments.

It comes after emotional scenes at the High Court yesterday in which they acknowledged that his muscles had deteriorated so much that “time had run out” for treatment.

Mr Gard said previously: “We want to give him a bath at home, put him in a cot which he has never slept in but we are now being denied that. We know what day our son is going to die but don’t get a say in how that will happen.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT