Archie Battersbee: DO “Hospitals Know Best”?
From the Sun Newspaper – what happened to Archie Battersbee
Editor writes…
Firstly, let’s all remember Archie and his family in our prayers, at this tremendously difficult time.
Maybe it’s because my trust in the medical and scientific professions has just about disappeared after the Covid lockdowns and restrictions, but I just do not agree with Ella Whelan that the hospitals know best in these child/life-support cases. I think the State should keep right out of family life and leave parents to do what they believe best for their children. At the very least, any decision to remove life-support should be taken by the parents, not the State, not medics, not courts. We need to remove all of these people from their pedestals, immediately, if not sooner.
Your thoughts…
Comments (33)
It’s the same as the abortion argument. Why do women who have abortions say they struggled with the decision, if there’s nothing wrong with killing a baby. In the same way, if there’s nothing wrong with ending the life of a 12 year old, what’s the big deal? Now the date has set – his mother is calling it an execution. It will happen at 12pm tomorrow.
https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/archie-battersbee-date-set-end-24640995
How very sad is this.
My answer is no – not always. Hospitals / doctors play God with people’s lives, and they have far too much power. Hospitals do not have a Catholic mentality towards suffering and death. In so many cases – widely publicised ones like this one – but also the countless ones that never hit the headlines, families are stripped all of God given rights. Patients are just burdens to be got rid of a.s.a.p.
WF,
You are so correct – without the Catholic mentality towards suffering and death, the medical and legal professionals will fall into the error of playing God themselves – and think they’re being so wise…
Yes, I’ve had some of that myself recently. A DNR order (Do Not Resuscitate) was slapped on my mother by a GP without her adult children’s consent – both who have full Power of Attorney. Needless to say a swift and very terse email got the order removed, along with a few other issues which needed ironing out (e.g. she must always be given nutrition and hydration at all times even intravenously, and also she is not to be given sedatives to impede her mobility in the case of another ‘covid outbreak’, as happened before in hospitals and care homes, where elderly patients were drugged with benzodiazepines to stop them mingling and ‘spreading the disease’. I’m telling you, you need eyes in the back of your head when it comes to the medical profession. A friend of mine – who used to share the same GP as my mother – ended up having to go to hospital for three days, because she was mis-medicated by the GP. It was the local pharmacist who is on the ball, who noticed that a particular drug she was prescribed was contraindicated against another drug she was already taking, and she had a bad reaction to it. I said she should report the GP to the General Medical Council and get her struck off. GP’s aren’t overworked – they get £100,000 a year, retire at 60 and are never in their surgeries. Try getting an appointment round here. The NHS is a disgrace and yet people call it ‘world class’. World class joke.
It’s worth remembering that Ella Whelan is one of the most fervent advocates for abortion, at any point and for any reason, in the media. She works for Spiked Online which is associated with Furedi of BPAS abortion mill infamy. She isn’t an objective journalistic voice when commenting on life and death matters no matter how calm and soothing the voice she affects for the camera
Andrew Q
Excellent point and always worth remembering. It’s so often the case that these people who hold such evil views, often appear calm, reasonable and personable when they put their evil views across. It’s almost like they’ve been specially trained – either that or the Father of Lies is helping them.
“Patients are just burdens to be got rid of” that is a truly dreadful remark Westminster fly. Tell that to the exhausted medics and nurses who work for hours to care for patients. Tell it to my son who put his own life on the line to go to Guinea and Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis, working with our army and the WHO. Oh, hang on you all think WHO is evil too don’t you?
We cannot know the details of the tragic Archie case but I would challenge any of you to go to the staff of the London Hospital and say they just don’t care about their patients. For a brain dead little boy why is it so terrible to let nature take its course and let him go to God? Isn’t that more a Catholic viewpoint? Shame on you.
Elizabeth,
There are always exceptions to every rule, we all know that, but there is genuine concern even within the medical and care profession about the attitude to end of life patients nowadays. Apparently this problem has been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. This report from SPUC spells it out.
https://www.spuc.org.uk/Article/385321/Doctors-less-likely-to-resuscitate-patients-after-pandemic-worrying-new-study-reveals
Your son is wonderful to have put his own life on the line like that and I have no doubt there are other doctors and nurses like him – but we can’t turn a blind eye to the reality, that, sadly, there are others in the profession who are not at all like your son.
As for the WHO – yes, it is an evil organisation. It is the WHO which has driven the pandemic fear and is trying to do the same with Monkeypox. The WHO has just appointed the active, lifelong Communist Susan Michie to a top post – she who was on SAGE during the pandemic, and who said on TV here (I think it was on Good Morning Britain) that she wanted us to wear masks, socially distance etc “forever”.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/news/2022/jul/professor-susan-michie-appointed-chair-who-advisory-group
There is a problem in the NHS about end of life care, there is no question about it. We do recognise the good professionals, of course we do, but we can’t ignore the others.
Elizabeth,
If you are indeed a Catholic, you may not be, I don’t know, you might like to brush up on what is acceptable / unacceptable according to Catholic teaching for end of life care. There is no shame on me for telling the truth. The NHS is an absolute disgrace and I will not revoke my words, I don’t care what your son does for a living. It’s a bottomless pit of money and no matter how much is thrown at it they always want more. I was only watching something on TV about this the other day about the proposed nurses’ strike (so much for their supposed selfless care and dedication – it’s all about money in the end). And one of the panel kept making the point over and over again that hospitals in some other countries perform much better with far less funding than the NHS gets. Quite. I must confess I don’t know all the minutiae of this particular case (and in any event wouldn’t necessarily trust details gleaned from the MSM) but people have been known to come out of PVS after many years.
Elizabeth,
Around 15 minutes ago I was chatting with a neighbour who was telling me that her 85 year old brother suddenly took ill yesterday when they were attending the funeral of a cousin. He became doubly incontinent at the place (a crematorium – not a Catholic funeral) and seemed very ill, not to mention, she said, that everyone on approach swerved well out of his way. His son (her nephew) rang the GP who said he could not attend but if they thought he was that ill, to take him to hospital. All he could do was recommend he ring back for a GP appointment later this week.
Whatever the reason, more and more of us are feeling let down by the NHS in one way or another. Personally, since lockdowns/restrictions, and being told it’s my job to “protect the NHS”, I’m on record as saying I’m no longer signed up to a Government-controlled health system. I’d prefer a private system with “free at the point of need” written into it for the genuinely poor who can’t afford the insurance. I especially think that needs to be written into the deal because I’m one of those “genuinely poor who can’t afford private health insurance, at this point in my life” 😀
As Josephine has said, there are, of course, good doctors and nurses in the service and I’m in full admiration for your son’s bravery in working to help Ebola sufferers. That doesn’t change the fact that there is something wrong with the system itself, notwithstanding that there are plenty of staff doing their best, and more.
Editor,
I absolutely agree that the NHS is broken and needs a complete reorganisation and acknowledgment that it is failing and certainly not a world class service. And my son and his wife who are both medics would go along with that.
What I objected to was Wf’s assertion that medical staff believe that patients were little more than a burden to be got rid off. He must have had truly dreadful experience of the NHS to feel like that.
My own mother, when she was dying of a catastrophic brain haemorrhage, was put on the so called lLiverpool pathway, an end of life protocol now abandoned. The consultant initiated that without any consultation with the family and was astounded when I confronted him about it. So, yes, I do know that some medics can behave like dictators! But I still believe that the majority are truly concerned about their patients and that the staff at the London Hospital will be very distressed about the case of young Archie. Westminster Fly wonders whether I am even a Catholic. Well I am and I believe that dying and hopefully going to God is not necessarily the worst option. If this child continues as he is (unlikely) it is most probable that he would spend his days lying curled up with limb contractures unable to recognise or respond to anyone. Is that really what any parent would choose? If all artificial intervention is withdrawn he will gradually and gently slip away.
Now I do wonder quite what an unsupervised 12 year old was doing exploring internet “challenges”? Sexual,games maybe? Self strangulation? Sadly I fear that his poor parents are trying to deal with unbearable grief and maybe guilt that he was allowed such access to the internet though I know it is difficult to police teenagers. But a twelve year old?
We cannot know the true state of Archie’s brain, but now several judges do and have all agreed that artificial maintenance of life should be discontinued. Are they too all hard hearted cruel monsters who only consider the financial implications of continuing treatment. Somehow I doubt it.
Elizabeth,
I’ve just popped in for a few minutes on admin business so don’t have time to answer you at any length but I do want to assure you that WF is not one of the bad guys. He has had terrible experiences with the NHS more than once, and that recently, so please cut him a little slack.
I haven’t heard anything about what Archie was doing when he had his accident and I sincerely hope it’s nothing like you suggest may have been the case, but, sure enough, who knows, these days. What I do know from speaking with parents of even primary age children is that – thanks to the prevailing mentality that parents should have no disciplinary authority over their children – it is very difficult indeed (more so than ever before, I suspect) to truly keep youngsters under control. They can’t do right for doing wrong – unpopular with their kids who think they’re too strict, but criticised by “society” for not being perfect parents. Can’t win.
I’ve not even had time to see the news so not sure if Archie is gone, or if they’ve won another reprieve. I would hope you agree, though, with the principle that it should be parents, not doctors or judges who should make life-changing (or life ending) decisions for their offspring. Obviously, where advice is required, parents would listen to that advice, but I can’t imagine being a parent and have a stranger – whether in a white coat or wearing a wig – tell me that he/they have decided my child’s future. Especially if the decision is that he’s not to have one!
Over and out – for now, at least 😀
Elizabeth,
I take back not one word of what I have written. And it shocks me that you are a Catholic and think like this. There may be individuals within the NHS who try to do their best, but I fail to see how ‘good’ Catholic individuals can continue to work for an organisation which is pro-contraception, pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-‘trans’ surgery and goes out of its way to support LGBT ‘rights’. I have left employment before because of conscience issues, so I know what I’m talking about. The notorious ‘Liverpool Care Pathway’ was abolished in 2014 following a government-commissioned review, as it was found that elderly patients were being deprived of nutrition and hydration, or being drugged, in order to hasten their death. And you tell me I ought to be ashamed of myself for knowing and speaking the truth about that? And although they call it something else nowadays – trust me – the same pro-euthanasia mentality exists in the NHS today, dressed up in different terms – I witnessed it first hand in July 2022 with a relative.
Westminster Fly,
Please read what I said. I did not defend the notorious Liverpool pathway. I challenged the consultant treating my mother when he started it without our consent or knowledge.
As I said I am a Catholic and I fail to see that my view that letting a brain dead child die when rigorous care and testing prove hopeless, is an inappropriate one for a Catholic. Isn’t life with God what we all hope for when we die? Sometimes dreadful things happen but we really cannot say that everyone working in the nhs is uncaring despite our personal bad experiences.
Anyway I will not make any further comment on this as I suspect it would be a waste of time, and also upsetting.
Elizabeth,
I did read what you said, I just didn’t agree with it. The NHS is institutionally pro-euthanasia. Which means that all the staff must follow their pro-euthanasia policies or leave. Look at this from today’s Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11081349/Use-chemical-cosh-drugs-dementia-patients-rose-50-cent-pandemic-study-finds.html Who prescribed those drugs to care homes? NHS doctors. I rest my case and won’t be commenting on this anymore either. God help that child and his poor family.
Elizabeth,
For the first time, I saw a segment on GB News last night regarding the game(s) which Archie is thought to have been playing when he had his “accident”. It is, in truth, shocking that any 12 year old (or anyone else) would play such dangerous “games”. So, that is something of which I was not aware previous to reading your comment.
In any case, I’m afraid I’m on the side of this writer who comments thoughtfully on the case…
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/say-a-prayer-for-archie/
It seems that in every one of these tragic cases the medics and courts choose death. Too often, as we saw in the Alfie Evans case, the Catholic authorities support the termination rather than offering support to the parents and life.
Andrew,
The fact that the Catholic bishops are not speaking out loud and clear against cases like this, is all part of the diabolical disorientation prophesied at Fatima, via Sr Lucia.
I do not understand why courts are involved. It is the case that parents will be unwilling to switch off a life-support machine and that is understandable. From what I have read the child is not deteriorating but is stable, even healthy.
The human body has amazing powers of recuperation and also of regeneration. Recovery from a head injury is very often a long process, long months or years. I would not give up after 3 months. Michael Schumacher was in a coma for 6 months but they did not give up on him. On might surmise that the hospital want the bed and equipment back for use by others..
Or, Antoine, we might surmise that only the lives of a certain “class” of patients is considered worth fighting to preserve.
There’s just no debate here as far as I’m concerned. Doctors and lawyers should stick their noses out of family life. The parents are the ones to decide if and when life support be withdrawn. I bet if Archie were a drug crazed celebrity they would be fighting to keep him alive.
Laura,
“I bet if Archie were a drug crazed celebrity they would be fighting to keep him alive.”
100% correct. I could not agree more.
While I genuinely believe that GB News means well – tries to be “the people’s channel” and tries to get the truth out there – I’m realising more and more how, in many ways, it’s presenters are failing to notice the elephant in the room. And they are failing because they’re not Catholic and don’t know the doctrine of the Popes exposing Marxist/Masonic tactics for the de-Christianising of society
The UK has become a Communist totalitarian State within which politicians, police, courts and financial institutions are morally bankrupt. Boris, for example, is clearly a cultural Marxist in his social beliefs yet he presents himself, and is accepted, as a Conservative. He’s pro-LGBT, pro-“gay marriage”, pro-abortion, etc., as are a majority of his so-called Conservative colleagues. These people are not Conservatives, they’re Communists. They’re not building the future, they’re destroying it! Our country, like most others today, is run by foreign interests such as the Davos elite. These people call the shots and puppets like our Prime Ministers are at their service. This is the reality, it’s what Our Lady of Fatima warned us about in the absence of that consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
We live now in a country that kills babies in the womb by the tens of thousands every year, takes away the rights and freedoms of citizens whenever it deems necessary, forces medical treatments with threats and bribes, allows tens of thousands of young Muslim men to flood the country illegally with impunity, supports in every way the undermining of the Christian family and family life and hands doctors and courts the authority of God over life and death. Tell me seriously that this is not totalitarian Communism in full control of the UK.
That little boy Archie is just another statistic to them, they care nothing for his life or his family other than the fact that he’s using resources they want to use elsewhere. “Brain death” is their excuse when in fact actual death, cessation of heart beat, is the only form of death, which only God has the authority to stop. The doctors don’t have that authority, nor judges nor the politicians. These latter trample the law, both divine and natural, by pretending otherwise. It’s a shocking reality now that a doctor and/or a judge can decide when someone’s heart is to be stopped. God have mercy on their wretched souls and God have mercy on us, living now in a world which has lost its moral compass and is presently on course for utter destruction.
I forgot to say that the most recent example of GB News being blind to what is actually unfolding in our country was their unilateral celebrations over the victory of the “Lionesses”, England’s women’s football team.
They think it’s great, a fabulous thing to celebrate, because they cannot see the end game behind women’s football, which is the Marxist goal to turn the order of God and nature upside down so that complementarity between the sexes becomes competition between the sexes. It’s a further muddying of the distinction between male and female and a further knife in the heart of Christian culture and family life. Lucifer is very clever, as are his servants. GB News has bought right into the emotionalism because it’s presenters have no understanding of the warnings issued by the Popes prior to Vatican II. Where Catholicism is not, blindness reigns!
Athanasius,
I agree. Some women hold matches in the field opposite where I live, and they appear to have taken on all the worst aspects of modern-day masculine behaviour (spitting, shouting, swearing etc). A friend of mine once told her daughters – and female grandchildren – that they always ought to think before they act – in whatever they do: “Would Our Lady speak / behave / dress etc, etc in this way”. And if the answer is “No”, then they shouldn’t either.
Here’s the mother of Archie speaking earlier today. She confuses the story of Solomon in the OT – quoting Our Lord by mistake, God love her, but she’s got the sense of the story correct, and that is the main thing…
We might all spare a prayer for her (and Archie) very specially tomorrow, when, without an intervention of some kind, Archie’s life support will be withdrawn.
Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick pray for Archie…
Update: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11076111/Archie-Battersbees-final-hours-Mother-schoolboy-makes-final-appeal.html
This very long but excellent summary of the COVID and vaccine scam – including the anti-therapeutic role of hospital administrators – is worth the time, and is also an excellent resource:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9062939/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Imagine the court still denying the parents right up to the last minute – all they want is to transfer him to a hospice for his final days to die with dignity and yet the judge is refusing even that moderate wish. I find this too incredible for words.
Archie has now passed away, so prayers for his soul and for the family would be good. May he rest in peace.
We recognise Harold Shipman as a murderer. We condemn Dignitas and suicide even of the terminally ill. At what point does pre-empting the assumed inevitable become murder?
That’s a good question. In a country that doesn’t recognise even the killing of unborn children as murder, I think the answer has to be – never. Doctors have become divorced from their consciences, ditto judges.
I just popped in to say may Archie rest in peace.
I’ve just read that the Battersbee family became Catholics at the hospital. If you scroll to the heading “Baptized in the Hospital” you will read some interesting information about Archie
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/tag/archie-battersbee/