Charlie Gard: Great Ormond Street considers 'new evidence'

Joshua Rozenberg‏Verified account @JoshuaRozenberg 3h3 hours ago
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Butler-Cole for guardian: parents should spend last few days of Charlie’s life with him, not with their lawyers.

Or arguing on social media.

Oh, in the name.....


Connie Yates
8 mins ·
URGENT we need a pediatric intensive care consultant to come forward to assist and facilitate with a hospice stay by 12pm tomorrow, we will pay privately. PLEASE HELP US!! Can you please contact James (Charlie's godfather) on jamesevers1039@gmail.com please only email if you can help us! We need some peaceful time with our baby boy xxx

Getting off social media would be a start...have they no spiritual advisors to help them? Right-wing US God-botherers don't count.....

Concerning internet mobs......

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/07/26/social-media-and-charlie-gard-populism-versus-public-services-guest-blog/

Quote-

First, the discussions show clear moral distinctions between in and out-groups, producing ‘the Establishment’ (state healthcare systems, doctors, nurses, the judiciary and most politicians) as evil and damaging – the out-group; and ‘ordinary’ people as the wronged and vulnerable in-group whose voices must be heard, often terming GOSH as Great Ormond Street Hell, rather than hospital. There have been frequent cries that the out-group (GOSH and the judiciary) are “holding Charlie hostage”, or condoning the “disposing of the disabled”

Second, there has been a sustained and often evidence-free blame attribution to maintain these moral distinctions, ranging from accusing clinicians of administering morphine through callous design, to vague and general allegations of meting out ‘the death penalty’.

Third, there has been a consistent use of anecdotes to reject professional expertise. In response to complex conversations around head measurements and brain scans, people who have never met the baby have photo-edited social media pictures of him for the judiciary to “see from pics how he has grown”; group members insisting that what the professionals recognise as swelling and oedema on the terminally ill baby is just that “he is a chunky monkey”.

As it happens my eldest son is hospital registrar specialising in anaesthetics and ITU.  I asked him for his take on this case and a brief synopsis is below.  (I don't think there is anything very new here but it's interesting to see the view of a professional dealing with these

"Medical professionals are effective because they can take an expert and professional view, and cannot allow emotion to cloud that judgement or they would not be able to do the job.

This little boy is terminally ill and has brain damage incompatible with life.  He is only being kept alive by agressive medical intervention including pressure ventilation.  If this is withdrawn he will be dead in a very few minutes.  

An ITU, and especially where ventilation is needed, can only work in a hospital setting with access to a wide range of specialist medical and technical staff as well as gas/ secure power supply etc.

If GOSH were to provide a unit in a private home this would be incredibly expensive and may lead to expectations by other patients of an 'a la carte ITU service at home' which is totally unrealistic under the NHS or indeed any other system public or private.  

There are times where a patient just has to be 'let go'.  The decision is best made by the relatives and medical team working together, but ultimately it should be guided by the relevant professionals having regard to quality of life and management of pain"

IMO This is a quite tragic case - made much more tragic by the intervention of the press and people with a political agenda.

Indeed, J-P.

RIP Charlie, Lamplighter