Charlie Gard Will Soon ‘Be with the Angels’

LONDON (AP) — The father of critically ill child Charlie Gard says the infant will not make his first birthday in less than two weeks.

In an emotional statement outside of London’s High Court on Monday, Chris Gard said too much time has elapsed in court hearings as the couple fought to have permission to send the child to the United States for experimental medical treatment.

Chris Gard said it was time to let Charlie go and “be with the angels.”

The mother of ill baby Charlie Gard has told Britain’s High Court that they “only wanted to give him a chance of life.”

Hugging her husband Chris Gard and weeping, Connie Yates told the court on Monday that they had decided it was no longer in the best interests of their 11-month-old baby to pursue an experimental treatment in the U.S.

The parents withdrew their legal challenge on Monday.

The couple said they had wanted to give Charlie a real chance of getting better and that a “whole lot of time has been wasted.” Yates says she hoped that Charlie’s life would not be in vain.

The couple had been fighting for months for permission to take Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. But Great Ormond Street Hospital in had argued it would not help and may cause him pain.

A lawyer for the parents of critically ill Charlie Gard says the window during which the baby could have been helped by experimental treatment has closed.

Grant Armstrong says it is “worthy of a Greek tragedy” that Charlie’s parents must withdraw their appeal, just as they were about to present new evidence to a court.

He says delays in treating Charlie mean his condition is now so poor that treatment will not help. He says tests show that the baby has irreversible muscular damage.

Armstrong says the 11-month-old’s devastated parents now “wish to spend the maximum amount of time they have left with Charlie.” He says discussions will be held in private about when Charlie’s life-support will be switched off.

He says the parents “wish to treasure their remaining time with Charlie, however short that may be.”