11-year-old Archie Battersbee from Great Britain has not yet been disconnected from life support equipment. To prevent this, the boy’s parents applied to the European Court of Human Rights. They did it on Wednesday at at nine, Archie was to be disconnected at XNUMX. The boy has been unconscious since April. With Archie’s case, questions about when to speak of human death come back.
- The boy developed brain hypoxia, most likely as a result of taking up the dangerous “blackout challenge” from TikTok. Hypoxia led to the death of the brain stem
- The 12-year-old’s parents, who want him to die naturally, have been fighting in court since May. Doctors decided that since brain stem died, disconnecting it from the apparatus would be the best solution. It was supposed to happen on the same day. The term was postponed many times
- According to the definition established at the international meeting of experts in Montreal in 2012, quoted by the Polish Ministry of Health, death “is a permanent loss of consciousness and a permanent loss of all functions of the brainstem”
- More information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page
Alistair Chesser, who manages the Royal London Hospital where Archie is located, told the BBC that outstanding legal issues must be resolved before the boy is disconnected from the apparatus. Representatives of the teenager’s family submitted an application to Strasbourg at approx. nine o’clock, two hours before the planned disconnection of the son from life-support equipment.
It may take 24 hours for the application to be processed and the hospital cannot take any action during this time. “As advised by the courts, we will work with the family to prepare for treatment withdrawal, but we will not make any changes to Archie’s care until the outstanding legal issues are resolved” — said Chesser.
The boy’s mom, Hollie Dance, is glad to keep fighting for her son. “We feel so relieved” — she said in an interview with the BBC. «We hope and pray that the tribunal will grant our request. We will not give up the fight for Archie to the end » — she added.
Organ failure
The 12-year-old’s parents, who want their son to die naturally, have been fighting in court since May. Then the doctors decided that since there was death of the brain stem, disconnecting Archie from the apparatus would be the best solution and it was to be done on the same day. The date was later postponed many times. “Each day of continuing life-support treatment is contrary to its welfare” — Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane explained the decision again on Monday.
On Tuesday afternoon, the request by the boy’s parents, Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance, was rejected by the British Supreme Court. The judges argued that the boy would die “within the next few weeks of organ failure”. They added that they understood the parents of the 12-year-old and made the decision with a heavy heart. The boy’s mom was “disappointed” with the British justice system. “There are no other options in this country: either Archie is conscious or he is dying” — she said.
Coma
The 12-year-old has been in a coma since suffering a brain injury on April 7, which is when his mother found him unconscious at home. The injury was most likely a result of the “blackout challenge”, a dangerous trend on TikTok — The challenge, also known as the “choking challenge” or “pass-out challenge”, has already led to the deaths of children in the United States and Italy.
The “blackout challenge” is about choking to the point of losing consciousness. Dr. Nick Flynn explained to the Irish Examiner what could be caused by cutting off the oxygen supply to the brain. «What actually happens in the brain is a lack of oxygen similar to when someone is drowning, choking or having a cardiac arrest. If little oxygen reaches the brain for more than three minutes, organ damage can occur. Low levels of oxygen reaching the brain for more than five minutes can kill » — He said.
Brain death equated with human death
Doctors diagnose brain death when the brain stops functioning irreversibly. The causes of brain death include head injuries, damage to the cerebral vessels, brain hypoxia and a brain tumor.
In medicine, brain death is equated with human death and means that no further treatment attempts will be made. Artificially maintaining blood circulation in the body of a person who has been diagnosed with brain death is not keeping him alive.
Universal definition of death
Polish law precisely regulates the method and criteria for determining permanent, irreversible cessation of brain activity. The Ministry of Health refers to the universal definition of death according to which “critical brain injury leads to the diagnosis of death based on neurological criteria, traditionally referred to as brain death”.
The definition says that “death is the permanent loss of consciousness and the permanent loss of all brainstem functions”. We read in the ministry’s announcement that the death of the brain is the same as the death of “man as a whole”. The diagnosis of brain death is based on the finding of an irreversible loss of brain function.
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