Archie Batterbee’s mum has said she “refuses to grieve” following her son’s death, saying his life was “the best 12 years of my life”.
The 12-year-old died earlier this month in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, after his parents lost a legal battle.
Archie had been in a coma since he was found unconscious by his mum Hollie Dance at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7.
He was being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments.
Hollie Dance
GB News
But after several unsuccessful legal appeals, Archie had his life support turned off.
Speaking to GB News’ Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel, Ms Dance said she was “honoured to be Archie’s mum”.
Ms Dance said: “I refuse to grieve for Archie’s life, I feel so honoured and feel his whole was an absolute pleasure.
“I’m so honoured to be Archie’s mum so I refuse to grieve.
“I’m more celebrating Archie’s life, it was the best 12 years of my life.”
Archie Battersbee
Hollie Dance
Doctors who treated the schoolboy for four months declared Archie to be “brain-stem dead”, prompting a lengthy but ultimately failed legal battle by his family to continue his life support treatment in the hope he would recover.
His parents had made bids to the High Court, Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights to have him transferred to a hospice to die, but these were rejected.
Barts Health NHS Trust had said Archie’s condition was too unstable for a transfer and that moving him by ambulance to a different setting “would most likely hasten the premature deterioration the family wish to avoid, even with full intensive care equipment and staff on the journey”.
When asked by Eamonn how she has been following her son’s death, Ms Dance said: “keeping busy, that is going to be my way of dealing with it.
“And fighting as hard as I can to get some sort of change in law so parents and people don’t have to go through this.
“We were backed into a corner by the system and stripped totally of our rights."
She added: “Something has got to change.”
