Archie Battersbee's funeral will take place next month

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Archie Battersbee’s funeral will take place next month after 12-year-old’s life support was switched off following High Court legal battle

  • Archie, 12, died after choking himself while doing an online ‘blackout challenge’ 
  • Judge ruled that doctors could lawfully stop providing life-support treatment
  • Then Archie’s parents failed in bids to overturn Mr Justice Hayden’s ruling
  • His funeral will take place at a church in Prittlewell, Southend, on September 13

Archie Battersbee’s funeral will take place next month, a family spokesman said today, after the 12-year-old’s life support was switched off following a High Court legal battle.

A judge ruled in July that doctors could lawfully stop providing treatment to the youngster, who suffered brain damage after choking himself while doing an online ‘blackout challenge’ at his home in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in April.

Archie died recently after his mother, Hollie Dance, and father, Paul Battersbee, failed in bids to overturn Mr Justice Hayden’s ruling.

The family have been supported by a campaign group called the Christian Legal Centre.

A spokesman for the centre said this morning that Archie’s funeral will take place at St Mary’s Church in Prittlewell, Southend, on September 13.

Archie Battersbee’s funeral will take place next month, a family spokesman said today, after the 12-year-old’s life support was switched off following a High Court legal battle

A judge based in the court’s Family Division ruled in July that doctors could lawfully stop providing treatment to the youngster, who suffered brain damage after choking himself while doing an online ‘blackout challenge’ at his home in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in April

Archie died recently after his mother, Hollie Dance (pictured), and father, Paul Battersbee, failed in bids to overturn Mr Justice Hayden’s ruling

Southend West Conservative MP Anna Firth has said she wants to discuss concerns over Archie’s case with the Health Secretary Steve Barclay, and has sked if he will meet her and Archie’s mother.

Judges heard that Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7.

She thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge. The youngster did not regain consciousness.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, thought he was brain-stem dead and said continued life-support treatment was not in his best interests.

Bosses at the hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, had asked for decisions on what medical moves were in Archie’s best interests.

A High Court judge, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, initially considered the case and concluded that Archie was dead.

But Court of Appeal judges upheld a challenge by his parents against decisions taken by Mrs Justice Arbuthnot and said the evidence should be reviewed by a different High Court judge, Mr Justice Hayden.

He ruled after a further hearing that ending treatment would be in Archie’s best interests.

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