Hope for Indi Gregory as Italian hospital offers to treat desperately ill baby with same condition as Charlie Gard – after her parents lost legal fight to stop medics from withdrawing life-support treatment

An Italian hospital has offered to treat a critically-ill baby with the same condition as Charlie Gard – after her parents failed in their desperate battle to stop medics withdrawing life-support treatment. 

Indi Gregory’s parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, have lost legal fights in London and failed in a bid to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France.

Campaign group the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Indi’s parents – who are both in their 30s and from Ilkeston, Derbyshire – said today that a hospital in Rome had agreed to accept the eight-month-old girl.

A High Court judge recently ruled that doctors could lawfully limit the treatment they provide to Indi, and her parents failed to persuade appeal judges to overturn that decision.

Indi’s parents also failed to persuade ECHR judges to intervene. They say they expect medics in England to begin the withdrawal of treatment soon.

Indi Gregory’s parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, have lost legal fights in London and failed in a bid to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

Baby Indi pictured at her christening alongside her parents Claire Staniforth and Dean Gregory

Campaign group the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Indi’s parents said today that a hospital in Rome had agreed to accept the eight-month-old girl.

A boss at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, where Indi is being cared for, had said the ECHR decision concluded a ‘very difficult process’.

The seventh-month-old girl is battling mitochondrial disease, a cruel and rare genetic condition that saps energy from the body’s cells. 

Dr Keith Girling, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust – which governs the Queen’s Medical Centre, had said the ‘priority now’ is to provide the ‘best possible care to Indi’ and to ‘support her parents’.

READ MORE – Extraordinary case of 19-year-old woman suffering from Charlie Gard condition battling medics’ attempts to ‘condemn her to death’

But a Christian Legal Centre spokesman said today that there had been a ‘dramatic development.

‘A leading paediatric hospital in Italy has offered specialist treatment,’ he said.

‘Fully-funded by the Italian government, the Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital in Rome has agreed to accept Indi for treatment.’

He said Mr Gregory had received a letter from the hospital president.

‘We have been given a real chance by the Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital for Indi to get the care she needs and to have a longer life,’ said Mr Gregory, in a statement released through the Christian Legal Centre.

‘We are amazed and truly grateful to the hospital and the Italian government, which has restored our faith in humanity.

‘We are now begging doctors at the Queen’s Medical Centre and the lawyers representing the trust to work with Indi and us to secure her transfer to Rome.

‘Indi deserves the chance for a longer life. We cannot force the NHS and courts in this country to care for Indi but together we can give her a chance with a truly amazing treatment plan in Italy. 

‘We hope and pray that the hospital and trust will do the right thing and help us and Indi.’

Indi has three older sisters who have accompanied their parents on visits to her in hospital

Indi, who was born on February 24, 2023, has mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition that saps energy, and is being treated at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham

Chris Gard and Connie Yates with their son Charlie Gard

Mr Justice Peel had considered evidence at a private trial in the Family Division of the High Court.

He heard that Indi, who was born on February 24, had mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition that saps energy.

Specialists say she is dying and bosses at the trust asked him to rule that doctors could lawfully limit treatment.

Medics say the treatment Indi receives causes pain and is futile.

Mitochondrial disease: Rare genetic condition that stops cells from producing enough energy  

When a person has mitochondrial disease the mitochondria in the cells are not producing enough energy for the cell. Sometimes they do not work at all, and sometimes they are just not very efficient.

If a cell does not get enough energy (ATP) it cannot function properly.

There is a huge variety in the symptoms and severity of mitochondrial disease. It depends on how many cells are affected, and where they are in the body – so every person with mitochondrial disease is affected differently.

Each individual affected will have a different combination of mitochondria that are working and not working within each cell.

However, there are times when particular body systems are affected in a recognisable pattern and these have particular names, for example Alpers, Leigh’s disease, MELAS and MERRF.

The commonest parts of the body affected are those that have the highest energy demands; brain, muscle, liver, heart and kidney.

If a lot of mitochondria in the body are affected in the important body organs, like the brain, mitochondrial disease can be very serious.

The symptoms of mitochondrial disease are usually progressive in body systems where the cells have a high demand for energy, such as brain cells.

Source: The Lily Foundation

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