Charlie Gard’s parents ‘had no time to say goodbye’ to son

Charlie’s mother Connie Yates and father Chris Gard reportedly issued a desperate plea to extend their time with their son before his life support was turned off.

Connie reportedly wrote on Facebook: “PLEASE HELP US!! We need some peaceful time with our baby boy.”

The couple initially wanted to take Charlie – who died on Friday, just a week before his first birthday – back to their West London home to say their final goodbye.

However after discussions with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), Connie and Chris compromised on sending Charlie to a hospice.

But they reportedly felt they were unable to say a proper goodbye because the hospice was unable to provide the “unnecessarily demanding” requirements to keep Charlie alive, leading them to shut off his life support at the end of last week.

The couple believed the measures GOSH insisted to prolong Charlie’s life were too stringent, according to the Mail on Sunday.

The 11-month-old baby suffered from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, and his parents’ long struggle to save him drew an international outpouring of sympathy.

He also became the subject of a bitter dispute between his parents and doctors over whether he should be taken to the United States for experimental treatment.

The feud ended after Charlie’s parents lost cases in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Charlie was born on August 4, 2016, but was diagnosed with mitochondrial depletion syndrome a few weeks after his birth, a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.

Specialists in the USA had offered an experimental therapy called nucleoside bypass therapy, which could have, in theory, helped Charlie produce the compounds his body is unable to.

But Great Ormond Street Hospital had said the experimental therapy would not help.

Doctors said his life support treatment should be replaced with palliative care so Charlie could “die with dignity”.

Now Britain’s leading child doctors are in talks with judges to make sure a case like Charlie Gard’s is fast-tracked through the courts to make sure no time is lost.