Life-support treatment for Archie Battersbee is expected to be switched off on Tuesday after the Court of Appeal rejected a last-minute bid to postpone the ending of his treatment.
The 12-year-old was rushed to hospital in April after being found unconscious by his mum at his Southend home. He had suffered a catastrophic brain injury and has not regained consciousness since.
Doctors treating Archie declared him as being brain-stem dead. Since the accident, Archie's parents Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee have launched several appeals to continue his treatment.
READ MORE: Archie Battersbee's heartbroken mum issues urgent message to all parents
They were granted a hearing on Monday after the government asked judges to urgently consider a request from a UN committee to keep treating Archie. But after considering the case, judges refused to postpone the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment beyond midday on Tuesday.
They also refused to grant permission to appeal against their ruling at the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest court. The family said they still intend to appeal the decision.
Outside the court, Ms Dance said: "We made a promise to Archie, we will fight to the end. And Archie's still fighting. If tomorrow's the last day then so be it, but we will be applying to the Supreme Court."
It is believed that Archie had been taking part in a dangerous viral challenge which had been circulating on social media before the incident. Yesterday his mum urged parents to be vigilant and aware of popular trends online, which children could replicate to try and go viral.
She said: "Please, please, parents, have the conversation with your children because I know there’s a whole new lot of online challenges. Please have these talks with your children because I think this seems to have been buried, you know, and I think it’s important.
"I don’t want any parent out there to have what we’ve been going through and I definitely don’t want to see any more children losing their lives."
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