Charlie Gard unlikely to spend final days at home

Terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard is unlikely to be allowed to spend his final days at home with his parents, a High Court judge has said.

Doctors caring for Charlie at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London said they want to fulfil the "last desire" of his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates.

But they said there are practical difficulties in providing the intensive care Charlie needs outside a hospital, and the judge said the chances of him being able to spend his final days at home are "small".

Charlie's parents have become embroiled in a fight with doctors over the circumstances of his death, a day after abandoning attempts to persuade a judge to let him travel to America for experimental treatment.

Mr Justice Francis presided over the dispute at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London and the hearing is scheduled to resume at 2pm july 26.

The judge said the dispute cried out for settlement.

Barrister Grant Armstrong, who leads the couple's legal team, suggested to Mr Justice Francis that hospital bosses were placing obstacles in Charlie's parents' way.

"The parents wish for a few days of tranquillity outside of a hospital setting," Mr Armstrong said.

"The parents had hoped that Great Ormond Street would work with them."

He added: "The parents' primary position is that Charlie's final days of palliative care ... should take place at the family home."

Mr Armstrong said Great Ormond Street doctors thought that moving Charlie to a hospice was the best plan.

But he said the couple felt there was a "brutality" to taking Charlie to a hospice.

He told the judge: "We struggle with the difficulties which the hospital is placing in the way."

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