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'Other countries want to help': Archie Battersbee's mom says doctors in Japan and Italy want to treat her son

The 12-year-old boy’s family has also filed an emergency application to the European Court of Human Rights to continue his life support treatment

BY DIVYA KISHORE

UPDATED AUG 3, 2022

Archie Battersbee's mother, Hollie Dance, says she will not stop fighting for her son 'until the end' (Carl Court/Getty Images and CITIZEN GO)

The mother of Archie Battersbee, whom doctors believe is "brain-stem dead," has now reportedly said that doctors in Japan, Italy and Turkey have offered to cure the boy. This comes after the 12-year-old boy’s family filed an emergency application earlier on Wednesday, August 3, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg (also known as the Strasbourg Court) to continue his life support treatment.

The parents — Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee — took the matter to ECHR after the UK Supreme Court did not rule in their favor on Tuesday, August 2, to block the withdrawal of life support and rejected their application to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision. The apex court allowed Barts NHS Health Trust, which runs the Royal London Hospital in London where Archie is admitted, to take the boy off from the ventilator at 11am on Wednesday.

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However, Archie’s family managed to submit the application to the ECHR before the 9 am deadline and now, a spokesman of Barts NHS trust has said, as reported by The Daily Mail: “We will make no changes to Archie's care until the outstanding legal issues are resolved.” Hollie related to the positive development as she noted, “We are very relieved... we are having to battle every decision with the hospital. We now hope and pray that the ECHR will look favourably on the application. We will not give up on Archie until the end.”

Ella Carter (2nd L), the sister-in-law of Archie Batterbee, is interviewed by media outside the Royal London Hospital on August 02, 2022 in London, England. Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, the parents of Archie Battersbee, 12, have been fighting against the Doctors treating their son who have concluded that he is brain-stem dead and that continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The mother also went on to claim that the medical professionals from Japan, Italy and Turkey want to continue Archie’s treatment. She said, “I'm now considering options to move him outside the UK,” before mentioning, “Yesterday was a very down day for me. People that know me know I won't stay down for long, especially when it comes to fighting for my son's life. I promised Arch, same with his dad, that we will fight 'til the bitter end, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to fight for the right for my son to live.”

Hollie stated: “It really is a case of me and Archie, and obviously Archie's family, up against the whole system. There's other countries that want to treat him and I think that he should be allowed to go,” as she added that those nations have “high success rates”.

Hollie Dance (C-L) and Paul Battersbee (C-R), the mother and father of Archie Battersbee, speak to the media as they leave the Royal Courts of Justice after winning an appeal for his case to be heard again, on June 29, 2022 in London, England. The Court of Appeal has heard a plea by the family of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee to overturn a previous court ruling that he is dead and his life support system should be removed. His parents Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee have appealed the ruling, saying his heart is still beating and they want treatment to continue. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Archie has been in the hospital in a state of coma since April after being found unresponsive at home by his mother with ligature marks. Since then, his family has made several appeals to keep him on the ventilator. But on August 1, the Supreme Court also rejected their request. They said that though they have "great sympathy with the plight of Archie's devoted parents who face a circumstance that is every parent's nightmare - the loss of a much-loved child... there is no prospect of any meaningful recovery (by Archie). Even if life-sustaining treatment were to be maintained, Archie would die in the course of the next few weeks through organ failure and then heart failure. The maintenance of the medical regime, as (Mr Justice Hayden at the High Court) held in his very sympathetic judgment, 'serves only to protract his death'.”

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But Hollie slammed the decision and called it “wrong”. She added, “It's not right, Archie's my child. It shouldn't be down to other people to decide where he takes his last breath and if he lives or dies. It's wrong.”