Bereaved Essex mother campaigns for better rights for parents with children in critical care
An Essex mum - whose twelve year old was found unconscious at home and died after a legal battle over life support - is petitioning for better rights for children in critical care.
Hollie Dance, from Southend, believes her son Archie Battersbee took part in an online challenge before she found him on 7 April 2022 unconscious.
Ms Dance tells us she carried out CPR on her son before calling an ambulance.
The paramedics who attended found that Archie Battersbee had suffered a cardiac arrest, and took him to Southend University hospital. It was believed that Battersbee sustained brain damage during this cardiac arrest.
He died four months later in August 2022 after the courts ruled his life support treatment should discontinue as he was considered "brainstem dead" and had no hope of recovery.
Battersbee's parents, who had the support of the Christian legal centre, had argued that he "needed more time to heal", and that his own religious beliefs should be taken into account.
His life-supporting equipment, including mechanical ventilation, was finally withdrawn on 6 August 2022.
Ms Dance is now campaigning for better rights for parents with children in critical care, including the right to seek independent expert medical advice and include it in decision making.
She tells Greatest Hits Radio " this would protect the rights of the child and their parents."
"Some countries do have progressive resources or treatments available and this is when the NHS needs to allow the child or the families to go abroad and exhaust every option possible, rather than sentence children to death in the UK."
She also wants a statutory minimum period before legal proceedings are commenced: "We think parents must have access to legal and financial assistance prior to court proceedings."
"When Archie was in hospital I realised that as a parent I had no parental rights over my own child which is really hard.
"You bring these babies into the world, you nurture them, watch them grow, it's just ironic that the decisions are then taken from you."