Alfie Evans reportedly continued breathing after being taken off a ventilator earlier in the week, but a British judge has now rejected a final legal appeal by his parents to let them take him to Rome for treatment of a degenerative brain condition, ruling the 23-month-old boy is terminally ill.
Parents Tom Evans and Kate James have been locked in a lengthy legal battle with his doctors to have their son treated at the Vatican’s hospital, drawing interventions from Pope Francis and Italian authorities, The L.A. Times reported, but Justice Anthony Hayden just ruled against that.
As its end apparently approaches, here are four things to know about the heartbreaking story that has gripped the world.
1. Alfie Evans’ mysterious illness: The toddler was born May 9, 2016, with a degenerative neurological condition that left him in a “semi-vegetative state,” The Sun reported.
Doctors have not definitively diagnosed the problem, but more than a year ago he slipped into a coma after being struck by what was called a “mysterious illness.” He was admitted into Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool in December 2016 with a chest infection and was placed on a ventilator.
2. How the case progressed up to now: Doctors said it would be in the child’s best interest to take him off life support, but his parents disputed that in a series of court battles. The Court of Appeal ruled that the toddler “could not be saved” and that continuing treatment would prove to be “unkind” and “futile.”
The parents failed to have the decision overturned at the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.
3. Why Alfie Evans can’t go to Italy: After a court ordered the toddler’s life support to be switched off, which happened on Monday, Tom Evans reported his son’s health was “significantly better,” but Hayden rejected that on Tuesday, Metro reported.
Speaking in court, Hayden said there was no “substance to this application, which represents, at least within the court process, the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy.”
He added that the brain “cannot regenerate itself and there is virtually nothing of his brain left” and advised the parents to consider taking their son home, to a ward or to a hospice.
4. What happens next: The parents said they plan to appeal the ruling preventing them from taking their son to Rome for treatment, The Independent reported. The Court of Appeal was set to hear the case on Wednesday afternoon.
“The Court of Appeal have reached out to us and said they are going to set back three judges to hear the case,” Tom Evans said on Tuesday night.