Charlie Gard

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No, cancer cannot just be thrown into the terminal condition bracket on the whole and most forms aren't comparable at all to the condition this baby has.
 
The application to take him to America was made in January at which point he was already brain damaged, deaf, couldn't breathe or open his eyes, had heart and kidney failure and may not even have been able to feel pain. The ship had long since sailed before they even had the money to make the trip.
 
The press and various other thoroughly irresponsible organisations ("Charlie's Army") and individuals (The Pope and Trump) should hang their heads in shame over the Charlie Gard frenzy.
[Great Ormond Street Hospital] later made an unprecedented attack on US neurology professor Michio Hirano, who had led Charlie’s parents to believe he could be treated. In a statement it said Gosh had shared their hopes when Hirano said he had new evidence that Charlie might benefit from NBT.

But it added that they had learned with “surprise and disappointment” last week that he had neither looked at the child’s brain scans nor read the medical notes, other expert opinions or the judgement of the court. It added that Hirano “retains a financial interest in some of the NBT compounds he proposed prescribing for Charlie”.
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According to the hospital statement, signed by its legal counsel, Katie Gollop, QC, its doctors had consulted with Hirano about possible NBT for Charlie last year and were seeking ethics approval to send him to the US. But he suffered seizures before Christmas that resulted in irreversible brain damage.
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But when Hirano, backed by other doctors in Italy, said there was new evidence that NBT would work on the child, Gosh hoped that he was right. The professor took up the invitation that had been open since last December to come to the UK for the new court hearing.
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I have every sympathy for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Judiciary who are the only people to come out of this with any credit.
 
When Charlie was first diagnosed, I assume the doctors at the time did research into the condition (globally) and discounted any new cutting edge treatments?

or do doctors not speak to their foreign counterparts? I'm almost certain they do. In fact, don't they have a linked IT system to share information
 
ubersonic said:
Charlie had the chance to be taken to the USA for AN EXPERIMENT which WAS NOT KNOWN IF IT could have allowed him to make a UNKOWN AMOUNT recovery but that ship has sailed because of HIS DISEASE.
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Charlie was ventilated and severely damaged at the point going to the US for said experiment was considered.
 
ubersonic said:
Charlie had the chance to be taken to the USA for treatment which potentially could have allowed him to make a recovery but that ship has sailed because the hospital/courts dragged everything out for so long due to politics.
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The parents seem to have believed this but it's not true. There was never any chance that the treatment would have succeeded. The only doctors would claimed they could save Charlie were ones who hadn't examined his medical records.

GOSH had nothing to gain from denying him potentially life-saving treatment. There was no such thing on offer though. Every single court looked at the evidence and agreed with the experts treating Charlie.
 
TheOracle said:
ok, I'm confused then as I thought this whole sorry saga was based around the fact he did NOT have the chance to go to America. If he did, why didn't he go?
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Parents wanted to take him and raised the money. GOSH asked the court to stop parents taking him because they didn't think it was in his best interests as it was unproven, he was already severely damaged and it was unlikely to anything but prolong his suffering.
 
Tunney said:
The parents seem to have believed this but it's not true. There was never any chance that the treatment would have succeeded. The only doctors would claimed they could save Charlie were ones who hadn't examined his medical records.

GOSH had nothing to gain from denying him potentially life-saving treatment. There was no such thing on offer though. Every single court looked at the evidence and agreed with the experts treating Charlie.
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This.
 
Minstadave said:
Parents wanted to take him and raised the money. GOSH asked the court to stop parents taking him because they didn't think it was in his best interests as it was unproven, he was already severely damaged and it was unlikely to anything but prolong his suffering.
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right, so at no point he actually had the chance to go? as that contradicts the other post
 
TheOracle said:
right, so at no point he actually had the chance to go? as that contradicts the other post
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From a physical health viewpoint he had a chance to go and he still could go. But he was going for an experimental treatment that was unlikely to do him any good and potential to just make him live longer rather than improve him in anyway.
 
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Interestingly the Gard's are now pushing the wasted time angle:

http://www.charliesfight.org/

There is one simple reason for Charlie’s muscles deteriorating to the extent they are in now – TIME. A whole lot of wasted time. Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have had had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy.

GOSH will be tied up in court for a long time as these guys are living in a dream world.
 
Tunney said:
The parents seem to have believed this but it's not true. There was never any chance that the treatment would have succeeded.
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You can't know that for sure, the thing that needs to be remembered is that he had an incredibly rare condition that doctors in this country had no real experience with, the US doctors however had encountered and treated very similar and equally rare conditions. The odds were high that the treatment offered would have made a difference, the question is how much, not that that will ever be known because the UK hospital chose to block his transfer.
 
All this has been such a sad story but this is England all over.

The NHS wont allow to help terminally ill people die with dignity as they're not in the business of helping people die, yet they wont allow someone with a chance (even a tiny one) of getting better?

Makes my blood boil. I became a dad 6 weeks ago for the first time and this story has just hit a nerve.
 
hardkore said:
All this has been such a sad story but this is England all over.

The NHS wont allow to help terminally ill people die with dignity as they're not in the business of helping people die, yet they wont allow someone with a chance (even a tiny one) of getting better?

Makes my blood boil. I became a dad 6 weeks ago for the first time and this story has just hit a nerve.
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You don't understand the case at all. I'd address your ignorance before getting angry.
 
ubersonic said:
You can't know that for sure, the thing that needs to be remembered is that he had an incredibly rare condition that doctors in this country had no real experience with, the US doctors however had encountered and treated very similar and equally rare conditions. The odds were high that the treatment offered would have made a difference, the question is how much, not that that will ever be known because the UK hospital chose to block his transfer.
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The odds were high that he'd improve? Got a source for that? The nucleoside bypass therapy had been used in other conditions but never in Charlie's - at best the evidence is just an educated guess.

How much improvement would he have needed to live an acceptable quality of life?
 
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