Doctors should establish whether a boy sent into a coma last month after suffering ‘catastrophic injuries’ is dead, judges have ruled.
Archie Battersbee’s mum told how she found him with a wound on his head on April 7 and thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.
Since then, his parents have been fighting to keep his hospital treatment going in a challenge at the High Court in London.
After today’s hearing, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot ruled that a brain-stem test would be in Archie’s best interests.
Specialists treating the 12-year-old boy at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think it ‘highly likely’ he is dead and say life-support treatment should end.
Bosses at the hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, asked the judge to rule that a brain-stem test would be in Archie’s best interests.
A specialist told the judge that the brain stem was responsible for the functions which kept people alive.