The plight of poor Charlie Gard has now become a bandwagon upon which political players have leapt
THE plight of poor little Charlie Gard has now become a cause celebre, a bandwagon upon which political players and congenital virtue-signallers have leapt with ill-disguised opportunism.
His parents, Connie and Chris, have welcomed the support — and if Charlie was my son, I would too.
Their instinct to do whatever it takes to try to save their child is a visceral and wholly understandable one.
But the motives of all the publicity-hungry Johnny-come-latelies blithely blurring the facts with fiction is deeply unhelpful.
The Gards aside, the saturation of social media in our daily lives means that mass emotional incontinence is now commonplace, and people can “sign” an online petition in a nanosecond while simultaneously scrolling through their notifications and watching Love Island.
Yes, 350,000 people may have clicked their support but what do they actually know about Charlie’s case beyond the knee- jerk sentiment that, in so many words, those nasty doctors are wilfully preventing that gorgeous little boy from finding a miracle cure?
Emotion must never be allowed to dictate decisions taken in government, hospitals or courts. They must deal in facts alone.
So let’s look at a salient few.
MOST READ IN OPINION
- Charlie cannot breathe on his own. Therefore, he is currently being kept alive by medical intervention. The debate is whether it is in his best interests for this to be withdrawn.
- The treatment being offered from abroad has never been given to anyone with Charlie’s exact condition and, even if it worked, would potentially slow down the disease but not alter the reality of his irreversible brain damage.
- Contrary to what some seem to believe, there is no “cure” for Charlie, who has mitochondrial disease. According to one biomedical scientist, a cure would involve removing the mitochondria from each individual cell in his body and replacing them with non-defective mitochondria known to be compatible. While this can potentially be achieved via pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in newly fertilised eggs, the technology to do it post-birth is currently non-existent.
- Whether he is “in pain” or not is a matter of debate. But the facts are that he has to have his lungs flushed regularly and being kept alive in intensive care is not a comfortable experience for anyone.
There are so many nuances to this case it is impossible to list them all here.
But Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is the most famous children’s treatment centre in the world, the last-chance saloon for young patients — be they the offspring of prince or pauper — whose conditions are way beyond the expertise of their local GP or hospital.
Over the years I have been fortunate enough to spend several weeks reporting from the inner sanctum of GOSH and, while no institution is faultless, the notion that the medics might not have a patient’s best interests at heart is as insulting as it is wrong.
They work tirelessly and selflessly, constantly experiencing an exhausting roller coaster of emotional highs and lows that would break most of us.
Nor do I for one minute suggest that Charlie’s parents don’t want what they think is best for him, too.
Which is why I don’t envy the role of Mr Justice Francis, who must ignore the interventions of his namesake Pope Francis et al and, tomorrow, decide whether there is enough “dramatic new evidence” to overturn his original decision that — acting with Charlie’s interests in mind — it would be kinder to let him die.
The judge has let it be known that he will listen to the Gards, Charlie’s doctors and any new expert opinion, but refuses to be influenced by Twitter or public perception.
And that’s exactly how it should be.
The court of public opinion should now retire gracefully.
Mother of all bother
MARIELLA FROSTRUP has threatened to take legal action after she claims she was thrown off a train by police.
She says she was singled out after demanding to know why the train hadn’t made a scheduled stop that meant she missed her daughter’s 13th birthday party.
Meanwhile, her fellow TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp sent this tetchy tweet to her followers while heading north to film a property show.
“Just left eight-year-old who’s very upset I won’t be back for his school concert. Next git who complains we do too many London shows can f*** off!”
Well-paid “meedja types” they may be, but it proves that no working mother is immune from the perpetual state of guilt we all suffer in trying to maintain the delicate balance between doing a job and “being there” for our children’s special moments.
Working dads, too, no doubt. But it remains that, self-inflicted or otherwise, the relentless pressure to be all things to all people still seems to hit women the hardest.
Who's the daddy?
A SURROGACY lawyer says the woman who carried Cristiano Ronaldo’s twins “will never know” for whom she gave birth.
Which, if true, and given that the name of the hospital and the date and time of birth have all been published, either makes her deliberately uninquisitive or a moron.
It's dad who needs the sack
A PRIMARY school in Norfolk has banned all parents from its sports day after police were called to two “low-level” incidents of “intimidating and aggressive” behaviour towards staff.
Who knew that the egg-and- spoon race could stir up such heated emotion?
When our youngest was about six, I walked in to the kitchen to find her rolling her eyes, her feet rammed in to the corners of a bin bag.
“Dad’s teaching me how to win the sack race,” she said with a sigh.
And on the day, as she lined up at the start, he bellowed jokingly from the sideline: “Remember – losing is a disease.” At least, I think he was joking.
Either way, all of our children dreamed of him being banned from their sports days.
Isle love you, Jamie
MODEL good looks? Tick. A brain? Tick. Kind, unassuming, gentlemanly, romantic and mindful to put others’ feelings before his own? Tickety-tick tick tick.
He even gets up early to surprise you with scrambled eggs as delicious as he is.
Yes, ladies. The search has been seemingly endless, with plenty of dead-end disappoint-ments, emotional red herrings and also-rans along the way.
But – step forward Love Island’s Jamie Jewitt – I think we have finally found the perfect man.
Unfortunately, he also appears to be taken.
Not such a 'sweet girl'?
WHEN British tennis hopeful Chelsea Samways went out on the town with 22-year-old Wimbledon bad boy Nick Kyrgios until 3am her father Lawrence threatened to “knock him out”.
“My daughter is only 18 and a sweet girl,” he said from the family’s home in South-West London. Sweet she may be, but “only 18” suggests that, like many devoted dads, he still regards his daughter as a pigtailed innocent in an Elsa frock and Lelli Kelly shoes.
The pictorial evidence (exhibit A: her Instagram account) suggests that Ms Samways has rather moved on from that phase.