Charlie Gard's parents were reminded of the ordeal they faced six years ago when sitting down anxiously to watch the new BBC1 drama, Best Interests. In a similar fashion to the family in the four-part series, Chris Gard and Connie Yates had to fight the NHS in a series of heart-wrenching court battles for the right to remove their baby boy, Charlie, from hospital so he could receive potentially life-saving treatment.
Connie and Chris, who lost their son in 2017 to a rare genetic condition, spoke to The Mirror about how the drama forced emotional flashbacks, after haunting similarities in their own experiences. They also allege that they attempted to contact the production company behind the drama to offer their insights, but it declined.
37-year-old Connie, said: "Watching Best Interests has been quite triggering. I said, ‘Let’s record it and watch it when we’re ready’. But seeing it this week takes you back with everything we went through with Charlie.
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"Everything from the beeping of the monitors, the media scrums outside court, the tough discussions with doctors and those difficult days sitting at Charlie’s bedside."
Following Charlie's death, the couple have campaigned for parents' rights on their children's care, and last year - a proposed Charlie's Law forced an independent review into current legislation set to expire come October. Connie and Chris are currently on a crusade to recruit families who have clashed with the National Health Service, who can lend their voice to the cause.
They want to change UK laws to allow parents more say in kids' treatments, and to also prevent expensive future legal battles. Chris, 38, said: "We want to make sure others don’t go through the hell we went through so since his death we have campaigned non-stop and it’s been hard.
"The system is broken as people watching Best Interests will see. We need to stop cases like ours going to court in the first place. Our dream is the review finds in our favour and new laws in Charlie’s name will give more power to parents."
Charlie's story shook the world across 2016 and 2017, with the baby boy dying from a rare condition which causes progressive muscle failure and brain damage, a week before his first birthday. He was just eight weeks old when he was first admitted to hospital - moving to Great Ormond Street Hospital before being diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.
The family set up a GoFundMe page, raising some £1.3million while giving a petition with 350,000 signatures to GOSH. Doctors told the parents that any form of external treatment would have had to have been sanctioned by a judge, leading to five legal cases from the High Court to the European Court of Human Rights.
Judges agreed that Charlie's life support should be turned off at each turn, citing that he be allowed to die with dignity - but the couple wished to take their son to America for nucleoside bypass therapy. However, GOSH said Charlie had irreversible brain damage and judges dubbed the proposed experimental treatment as 'futile'.
The tot sadly passed away three days after the last hearing, with his parents consenting to switching off his life support.
Best Interests, with the final two episodes airing at 9pm on Monday and Tuesday, follows a family like Charlie’s. Their daughter Marnie, played by Niamh Moriarty, is taken to hospital where medics diagnose a rare form of muscular dystrophy.
It tracks NHS plans to withdraw treatment of the brain-damaged girl in a coma and the fight by mum Nicci (Sharon Horgan) and dad Andrew (Michael Sheen) to get treatment elsewhere.
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