A woman who lost a High Court life-support treatment fight centred on her 12-year-old son says she is continuing to pursue “justice” nearly a year after tragedy struck.
Hollie Dance found Archie Battersbee unconscious at their home in Southend on April 7 2022.
The youngster suffered brain damage and died in August after a High Court judge ruled that ending life support treatment was in his best interests.
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.
Ms Dance, who failed to persuade appeal judges to overturn the ruling, has asked the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to consider Archie’s case.
She has complained that his rights as a disabled person were violated.
Campaign group Christian Concern, which is supporting Ms Dance, said on Wednesday that the committee had been in touch to say it would consider her “complaint”.
“Nothing can now bring Archie back,” said Ms Dance.
“But I am determined to continue to pursue justice for him and to hold the UK Government properly accountable.”
Essex’s senior coroner Lincoln Brookes ruled in February, following an inquest, that Archie Battersbee died accidentally as a result of a “prank or experiment” which went wrong.
He said that “something very similar happened the night before”.
Mr Brookes had considered a conclusion of suicide but ruled this out as he said, while there were "periods of low mood and very low mood" during the previous year, in the days preceding Archie's death he "hadn’t received any evidence of that".
Tributes poured in for the youngster after his death, including those from Southend West MP Anna Firth who added Ms Dance had “exemplified the power of motherhood” in her fight for Archie.
Hundreds of people also attended Priory Park in September following the 12-year-old's funeral, as Ms Dance and Archie's father Paul Battersbee unveiled a new bench in his memory.
The black bench is located in the children’s play area.
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