Archie Battersbee: Last-minute hearing to be held over treatment

The Court of Appeal is to hold a last-minute hearing in the case of Archie Battersbee - hours before doctors are due to withdraw life support.

The government asked judges to urgently consider a request from a United Nations committee to keep treating the 12-year-old while it examines the case.

The Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled for 11:00 BST - three hours before care is due to end at 14:00.

Archie was found unconscious at home in Southend, Essex, on 7 April.

He has never regained consciousness and his mother Hollie Dance said she believed he might have been taking part in an online challenge.

Archie, who is at Royal London Hospital in east London, is due to have his life support stopped on Monday afternoon.

Doctors at the Royal London Hospital, where Archie is being treated, have said that he is brain-stem dead and that it is in the child's best interest to stop treatment.

Last week, Appeal Court judges ruled that doctors could lawfully disconnect his ventilator.

It comes after two High Court judges agreed with doctors and said life support treatment could end.

Archie's family applied to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (UNRPD) to consider the case, arguing it had a protocol that allowed individuals and families to "make complaints about violations of disabled people's rights".

The committee requested that Archie's life support continued while it considered the application from his family - a request now granted by the government.

A legal "stay" to prevent treatment being withdrawn has also been put in place until 13:00 on Monday.

Ms Dance said the family felt "relieved" that the government had taken the UN's intervention seriously.

"This was not a 'request' but an interim measures injunction from the UN," she said.

"The anxiety of being told that Archie's life-support will be removed tomorrow at 2pm has been horrific. We are already broken and the not knowing what was going to happen next is excruciating."

Archie's parents are being supported by campaign organisation the Christian Legal Centre.

Alistair Chesser, chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "Our deepest sympathies are with Archie's family at this difficult time.

"We understand a court hearing will take place on Monday morning and we await the outcome.

"The plan to withdraw treatment will proceed unless the court directs otherwise."

As the UK had joined the optional protocol to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, the UN was able to ask the government to delay the withdrawal of life support while a complaint was investigated, Christian Concern said.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We recognise this is an exceptionally difficult time for Archie Battersbee's family and our thoughts are with them.

"The government asked the High Court to urgently consider the request from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."

7 April: The 12-year-old is found unconscious at his home in Southend, Essex. His mother believes he had been taking part in an online challenge

13 May: A judge rules that Archie should undergo a stem test to establish whether he is dead

31 May: Based on MRI scans, Archie died at noon, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot would later rule

29 June: Archie's parents win an appeal for his case to be heard again

11 July: A new hearing, to be presided over by a different judge, begins

15 July: Mr Justice Hayden issues his ruling that it was in Archie's best interests for life-support to end, saying further treatment was "futile"

25 July: An application to the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling is rejected and judges rule that doctors can lawfully disconnect his ventilator

29 July: Archie's parents urge the United Nations to intervene to try to maintain his medical treatment

31 July: The UK government asks an out-of-hours High Court judge to review Archie's case