About 200 protesters are supporting the parents of a 23-month-old boy Alfie at the centre of a life-support treatment battle have attempted to storm Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, after the European court of human rights refused to intervene in the case.
UK baby Alfie Evans was removed from his ventilator sometime after 9:00 PM local time, sources on the ground in Liverpool tell LifeSiteNews. Parents Tom and Kate are now in their son’s room at Alder Hey hospital, spending what may be their last moments together.
The High Court ruled in February Alder Hey Children’s Hospital could stop providing life support for Alfie against the wishes of his parents Tom Evans and Kate James.
The 23-month-old boy, Alfie has been in Alder Hey since December 2016 with a rare undiagnosed degenerative neurological condition.
The hospital has argued that keeping him on a ventilator is not in “his best interests” and any further treatment was not only “futile” but also “unkind and inhumane”.
His parents want to take him to Rome’s Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital, which has links to the Vatican, where his palliative care would continue.
The parents have since lost a series of legal challenges to the decision.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it hopes Alfie will be allowed “immediate transfer to Italy”.
Mr Evans said on Facebook: “Alfie has been granted Italian citizenship. We await for the [Italian] foreign minister to call Boris Johnson.” He also said that Alfie belongs to Italy.
Doctors in the UK have argued that life support should be withdrawn for the boy, who has a rare degenerative brain disease.
It remains unknown how long Alfie will survive removed from his life-support.
A video posted on YouTube, taken this evening by Alfie’s father Tom Evans, shows the 23-month-old toddler responsive and alert, blinking and looking around the room.
Pope Francis renewed his support for the family earlier by tweeting: “Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted.”
Approximately 200 people turned up to protest outside the hospital after judges at the European Court of Human Rights, supporting him tried to storm Alder Hey hospital before police officers formed a line to block the entrance.
Thomas Evans tells to the supporters: “Now we pray hard that Justice Hayden releases Alfie, if not he’s going to be executed. So please pray. You can pray at home, pray in your car, pray at work, or come down to Alder Hey and pray peacefully and be respectful. I encourage everyone now to stand together for Alfie.”
On the social media a lot of people are sending support to his family and they pray for Alfie. Here are some of the tweets:
Sadly Alfie Evans is not the only seriously ill child in @AlderHey yet there is a mob screaming, shouting and blowing car horns outside. Please have a bit of respect for all patients and if you need to protest do it quietly & respectfully 😢
— Helen (@hjmac41) April 23, 2018
The world has gone absolutely MAD! Kate Middleton is in labour and she’s all over the news… @Alfiesarmy16 Alfie Evans will lose he’s life & the world has gone silent.. Today I’m disgusted to be British 💙💜💂💙💜
— Danielle lou (@Daniellelou14) April 23, 2018
Feel so sad for Alfie Evans family but I find it so odd the way his dads first reaction to anything is to put it on Facebook 😕 if my days were numbered with my child the last thing I’d want to be doing is keeping a load of Facebook ma’s updated about it
— Irene McEyebrow 🐼 (@Irene_McEyebrow) April 23, 2018
This Alfie Evans case is really doing my nut in. The poor kid is BRAIN DEAD. The hospital are not giving him a ‘lethal injection used on death row’; literally the worst fke news I’ve ever seen. The kid’s Dad seems to be a massive dick as well. Let the child pass with dignity ffs
— Scott (@scotth95_) April 23, 2018
To sum up:
Alfie Evans is TERMINALLY ill.
Going to Rome will NOT cure him, it’ll be a PALLATIVE care hospital.
Alfie will be not “given drugs like those given to death row inmates”.
And protestors, please stop storming a hospital…
A devastatingly sad situation all round.
— Jamie Saczak (@jsaczak) April 23, 2018
Yet again, courts in Europe have sentenced a baby to death, not allowing the parents of little Alfie Evans to take their son and transfer him to a hospital in Rome. This is the horror of socialized medicine, everyone.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 20, 2018
Protesters are trying to storm the hospital that Alfie Evans is in after European judges refused to intervene in his case. Here’s what we know pic.twitter.com/PYTBqYpkVL
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 23, 2018
Hundreds of protesters try to storm Alder Hey. Truly dreadful behaviour. This is a children’s hospital, for heaven’s sake, full of sick, vulnerable & frightened young boys & girls & their families. https://t.co/6eL6XGdIqq
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) April 23, 2018
Sources: The Guardian, Live Site News, BBC
