Archie Battersbee cannot be moved to a hospice, the High Court has ruled, stating that it is not in his best interests.
The judgement from Mrs Justice Theis on Friday at the High Court found that moving Archie to the hospice needed to be viewed in light of his medical position which is "becoming more fragile" and that when his best interests are considered, he should remain at the hospital until treatment is withdrawn.
A spokesperson for the family said that Archie’s parents have now filed an appeal on the judge’s decision to the Court of Appeal, to be heard on Friday afternoon, where they will challenge the decision.
The 12-year-old has been in a coma since April after he was found following an accident at his home. Doctors have declared him to be "brainstem-dead", and his family have fought to maintain his life support in the courts, with the European Court of Human Rights ruling on Wednesday that planned withdrawal of his treatment could not be delayed.
The judgement referred to how Archie had suffered a "catastrophic" brain injury as a result of the accident and had "no prospect of making any meaningful recovery".
Doctors had previously given evidence that Archie was "weeks away from a death which will otherwise occur from a gradual further deterioration and then failure of his organs followed by the failure of his heart".
Following the failed attempt to prolong Archie’s treatment, doctors also gave evidence regarding whether Archie should be moved to a hospice, including the "not insignificant" risks of moving Archie, such as a fall in his blood pressure when he is turned or moved.
The doctor advised the High Court that there would be risks involved in moving Archie from his bed to a hospital trolley, as well as the possibility that his tubes would be dislodged or equipment would fail while making the journey to the hospice.
‘We are broken’
Following the ruling, Archie’s mother Hollie Dance said: "All our wishes as a family have been denied by the authorities."
"We are broken, but we are keeping going, because we love Archie and refuse to give up on him."
Ms Dance, and father Paul Battersbee, launched an urgent bid to have him transferred to a hospice to die, resulting in a hearing which ran until late on Thursday night.
But, in a ruling on Friday morning, Mrs Justice Theis concluded it was not in Archie’s best interests to be moved.
The judge refused permission to appeal against her ruling, after lawyers for the family requested it.
The judgement also described how one doctor said that potential medical treatments overseas, such as trials using stem cells to repair brain injuries, would depend on the patient’s prior clinical and brain state, and that where there "is very extensive brainstem and cortical damage, as is sadly the case for Archie, it is impossible to envisage that a cell-based therapy could produce any meaningful improvement".
