The sad Charlie Gard case

The Herald reports:

Charlie Gard’s parents have ended their legal fight over treatment for the terminally-ill baby. …

Armstrong said Charlie’s parents had made a decision following the latest medical reports and scans.

Armstrong said damage to Charlie’s muscle and tissue was irreversible.

“The parents’ worst fears have been confirmed,” he said. “It is now too late to treat Charlie.”

You can only have the deepest empathy and sympathy for the parents, who desperately wanted to believe there was hope, even when the doctors concluded there wasn’t.

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) said their “hearts go out” to the family in the tragic case. However they backed their earlier decision that not to treat Charlie based on the “irreversible neurological damage” he had suffered, meaning they believed any chance of therapy improving his condition “had departed.”

The hospital also noted its “surprise and disappointment” that the doctor who provided evidence for a last minute intervention, Dr Michio Hirano, stated in court on 13 July he had not visited the hospital to examine Charlie, read his notes or seen his brain scans.

“Further, GOSH was concerned to hear the Professor state, for the first time, while in the witness box, that he retains a financial interest in some of the NBT compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie.

I’m less sympathethic to people who gave the parents false hope.