The offer of US President Donald Trump to intervene to help the sick baby Charlie Gard has given the parents hope, they said today.
A family spokesman said: 'The White House has been in talks with Charlie's family, GOSH, the UK Government, the Department of Health and the American doctor who wants to treat Charlie. President Trump has a very good understanding of the whole case and he did not make an off-the-cuff tweet.'
Earlier this month, President Trump tweeted: 'If we can help little, as per our friends in the UK and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.'
Charlie's parents raised £1.3m in crowdfunding to fund experimental treatment in the US but judges at the European Court of Human Rights have refused to let him go because they believed further intervention will 'continue to cause Charlie significant harm'.
If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">President Trump is expected to talk to Prime Minister Theresa May about the case at the G20 summit in Germany this week.
The Pope has also pleaded for Charlie's parents to be allowed to 'accompany him to the end'.
His parents have been denied permission to take him from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to the US for experimental therapy
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson intervened to say Charlie cannot also be moved to Italy after the president of the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome suggested he be transferred there.
Charlie, aged 10 months, is seriously ill with the muscle weakening genetic condition, mitochondrial depletion syndrome, in Great Ormond Street where he has been since October. He cannot see, hear, move, cry or swallow.
In Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, May said that the hospital will always 'consider any offers or new information that has come forward with consideration of the well-being of a desperately ill child'.
Top doctor Robert Winston told Good Morning Britain on ITV that the interventions from Trump and from the Vatican were 'extremely unhelpful and very cruel'.
Lord Winston said: 'This child has been dealt with at a hospital which has huge expertise in mitochondrial disease and is being offered a break in a hospital that has never published anything on this disease, as far as I'm aware.'
Dr Trevor Stammers, Senior Lecturer In Bioethics at St Mary's University, Twickenham, told Christian Today: 'This case shows how when trust breaks down between parents of a very sick child and the hospital team things can escalate through the courts and then social media can fuel conflict further so that politically driven decisions could eclipse medically appropriate ones.
'Doctors cannot be compelled to continue treatments that they feel are futile, having little or no chance of success and which may even be harmful. I have no reason to doubt that the further care Charlie would receive if active treatment is withdrawn would be planned taking into account his parents wishes.'
