Rome, 9 November 2023 – The removal of life support for little Indi Gregory, hospitalized in Nottingham, has been postponed. The family’s lawyer, Simone Pillon, announced it on X, explaining that tomorrow at 12.00 “there will be a hearing in the Court of Appeal”. In the meantime, the procedures pursuant to articles have been activated by Italy. 9 and 32 of the Hague Convention. Indi’s parents – writes Pillon – still thank Italy from the bottom of their hearts for what she is doing. Hope flares up.”
Dad Dean had broken the silence after a long and dramatic night. Perhaps the last hours that keep her daughter, 8-month-old Indi Gregory, clinging to life. The stop to vital treatments, which should have taken place today at 2pm (3pm Italian time) at the Queen’s Medical Center in Nottingham where she is hospitalized, was first extended by 2 hours then postponed until tomorrow.
The battle of Indi Gregory’s parents
The parents of the English baby girl suffering from a rare mitochondrial DNA disease, for which life support has been suspended, are not giving up. “She deserves a chance”, Gregory explained to the BBC, after the latest ruling from the judge who yesterday also denied the possibility of managing the end of life at home, as it was deemed not in the best interests of the child and “almost impossible” to carry out at home without risk of complications. The family will appeal, as explained by the Christian Legal Centre, which supports them. But time is short. But the father objects: “she has a country that offers to pay for everything: we just have to take her there, so she won’t cost the hospital or the government anything”.
Italian citizenship for little Indi
The Gregory family had requested that the little girl be transferred to Italy, where the Vatican pediatric hospital Bambino Gesù was available to assist her. After the British High Court rejected the request, the Italian government granted citizenship to the little girl with an urgent meeting of the Council of Ministers, with the belief that this could help the Gregorys in their legal battle. “We think it is in Indi’s best interest to come to Italy to receive treatments that could help her breathe, by opening a valve through the implantation of a stent, so that we can then focus on her mitochondrial disease which can be treated with these therapies. We know that Indi is a fighter, she wants to live, and she doesn’t deserve to die. Thank you,” the father said in a video broadcast by La7, thanking Italy for her commitment.
Meanwhile, the doctors, the BBC reports, told the judge that Indi was currently “clearly distressed, agitated and in pain” and that, while extubation could in theory take place anywhere, her subsequent care should be “managed by qualified professionals with resources available to address complications and minimize discomfort.” The motivation is therefore this. “Everyone thinks: ‘why don’t they let her go?’ They have nothing to lose,” reflects Dean Gregory who said he was confident that if Indi had been allowed to travel to Italy, she could have been saved.
Keith Girling, medical director of Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust said he was aware that “this is an incredibly difficult time for Indi and her family, and our thoughts are with them today. Following the High School’s decision Court, our priority – he assured – will remain that of providing the little girl with specialist care appropriate to her conditions and in line with the court’s indications, supporting her family in every possible way”.
The urgent request of the Italian consul
The Italian consul in Manchester, Matteo Corradini, as guardian judge of the 8-month-old girl, presented this morning an urgent request to the High Court of the United Kingdom, under the Hague Convention, in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the suspension of the treatments that keep Indi Gregory alive.
The words of the Italian bishops
The little girl’s case shocks everyone’s consciences. And the words of the Italian bishops cannot fail to recall her case. Life is always worth living, even when the person seems more fragile, this is the appeal of the CEI. “The life of the seriously ill and disabled is judged unworthy of living, skimping on medical support and going so far as to present assisted suicide or induced death as a humanitarian gesture.” That of Indi’s parents is yet another legal battle taking place in the United Kingdom over the survival of a sick child, as had already happened for Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans.
The words of Welby’s doctor
But Welby’s doctor launches a provocation: “Is life a good thing?”, he asks himself. Mario Riccio, general councilor of the Luca Coscioni Association, former head of Anesthesia and Resuscitation at Casalmaggiore Hospital, is known in the news for being the one who pulled the plug on Piergiorgio Welby and for having followed the first assisted suicide in Italy. In a note, the doctor claims not only the right to choose but the need for concrete responses from the Government also following the latest news episodes which saw Indi Gregory as the protagonist. “Italy is the country of vain hopes, known to the world for pseudo-health issues. Di Bella, Vannoni, Stamina, could have avoided a new spotlight on the matter of vain hopes of a cure – he points out -. For Indi, not even the immediate availability offered by the capital’s pediatric hospital after the little girl was recognized as having Italian citizenship could be needed. But is life still good? – goes on -. If yes, Sibilla Barbieri was forced to go to Switzerland to find the death she wanted and which it would have been her right to find in Italy but she encountered senseless resistance from the Lazio regional health system, in her request for assisted suicide, despite having demonstrated, perhaps better than many appraisals and counter-appraisals, his pitiful condition. But beyond the single case, unfortunately we must once again underline the silence of the Government and the inertia of the legislator, already referred to by the Consulta on the occasion of the DJ Fabo-Cappato ruling”, concludes the doctor.
This article is originally published on quotidiano.net
