Archie Battersbee: Judge set to decide future of brain-damaged boy, 12, in treatment dispute

Archie Battersbee has been unconscious for two months. Credit: PA Media

A High Court judge will make a decision on the future of a 12-year-old boy at the centre of a dispute over life-support treatment.

Archie Battersbee's parents are contesting the view of doctors at the Royal London Hospital, who believe it is “highly likely” he is dead and say life-support treatment should end.

Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, from Southend, Essex, disagree with that assessment and are pushing for their son's treatment to continue.

Lawyers representing the Royal London Hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, have asked Mrs Justice Arbuthnot to decide whether doctors should continue treating Archie.

The judge is scheduled to begin overseeing a final hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Monday.

Boy on life support's brain is partially 'dead and decaying', claims specialist
Hollie Dance, Archie Battersbee's mother, outside the High Court. Credit: James Manning/PA

She has heard that Archie suffered brain damage in an incident at home in early April.

Miss Dance has told how she found him unconscious with a ligature over his head on 7 April and thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.

The youngster has not regained consciousness.

Archie’s father, Paul Battersbee, outside court Credit: PA

One specialist told the judge at an earlier hearing that he thought scans showed that Archie had suffered “irretrievable” brain damage.

Two others said they thought tests showed that the youngster was “brain-stem dead”.