Relatives of a 12-year-old boy at the centre of a life-support treatment fight are preparing to launch an appeal bid after a High Court judge ruled that the youngster is dead.
Doctors treating Archie Battersbee at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think the youngster is “brain-stem dead”.
They say life-support treatment should end and Archie should be disconnected from a ventilator.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, based in the Family Division of the High Court in London, ruled on Monday that Archie, who suffered brain damage in an incident at home in April, was dead and doctors could lawfully stop treating him.
Relatives said they wanted Court of Appeal judges to consider the case.
Relatives must first establish that they have an arguable case and gain permission to appeal, before an appeal hearing is staged.
Lawyers representing the Royal London Hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, had asked Mrs Justice Arbuthnot to decide what moves were in Archie’s best interests.
The judge heard that Archie suffered brain damage in an incident at home in early April.
Ms Dance said she found him unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7 and thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.
The youngster has not regained consciousness.
