Indi Gregory’s life support is withdrawn and she is moved from hospital to a hospice after her parents lost legal fights at the High Court
Specialists have withdrawn life-support treatment from a critically-ill baby girl who has been at the centre of a legal battle, a campaign organisation supporting her parents has said.
Eight-month-old Indi Gregory has been transferred from the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham to a hospice, Christian Concern said on Sunday.
Indi’s parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, have lost life-support treatment fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal in London.
In a statement issued through the group, Indi’s father said she is ‘fighting hard’.
Her parents failed to persuade Court of Appeal judges and judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, to overturn that treatment decision.
Indi, who was born on February 24, has mitochondrial disease – a genetic condition that saps energy.
Specialists say she is dying and bosses at the hospital asked for a ruling that doctors could lawfully limit treatment.
Medics say the treatment Indi receives causes pain and is futile. Her parents disagree, and had been desperately trying to get her transferred to Italy for treatment.
Mr Justice Peel considered evidence at private hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
The judge said specialists involved in Indi’s care could not be named – nor could the hospice where she has been moved to.
It comes only days after the Derbyshire family’s appeal to take her home was rejected.
Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth mounted a desperate appeal after failing to persuade a judge to let her receive end-of-life care at home.
They said they wanted specialists to withdraw treatment from eight-month-old Indi at their home in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.
A High Court judge on Wednesday ruled against Indi’s parents and concluded that withdrawing treatment at home would be ‘too dangerous’.
Prior to that, Italy made an urgent request to the High Court to have baby Indi handed over to them so she can be treated in Rome.
There were hopes that she would be transferred to the Bambino Gesù Hospital, which agreed to treat her illness, after the Italian government intervened and granted her citizenship.
Italian consul in Manchester, Matteo Corradini, requested in his capacity as guardian for Indi that she be allowed to travel for treatment.
The request was made to the High Court in London to Mr Justice Robert Peel who heard previous reviews and each time ordered it is in her ‘best interests’ to be allowed to die.