Alfie Evans 'could be flown to Italy' if latest court challenge succeeds

A High Court judge is set to rule on whether severely ill toddler Alfie Evans could be flown to Italy for treatment.

The 23-month-old child could immediately be flown to a children’s hospital in Rome for treatment if the appeal is successful.

His father said Alfie’s life support machine was switched off on Monday evening, but that he has been breathing on his own since then.

Parents Tom Evans and Kate James are to ask the Family Division of the High Court in Manchester for an order stopping Alfie being removed from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool can be lifted.

Judge Mr Justice Hayden will be asked to allow medical experts in Italy, where he has been offered treatment and granted citizenship, to examine Alfie, who is in a semi-vegetative state. The hearing is due to take place on Tuesday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the Christian Legal Centre, which is assisting the toddler’s parents, said: “Alfie has survived much longer than the doctors predicted, lending support to the request from Alfie's parents for Alfie to be seen by medical experts in Italy.

“An air ambulance is now waiting outside Alder Hey Hospital ready to take Alfie to hospital in Italy," she added.

She said a barrister representing Alfie's parents, who are both in their 20s and from Liverpool, would argue that it could not be in Alfie's best interests to be "left to die in Alder Hey".

The spokeswoman added: "He will argue that Alfie should be allowed to travel to Italy where doctors are ready to care for him."

Alfie's parents have lost two rounds of court fights.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state" and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors have not definitively diagnosed.

Specialists say his brain has been "eroded", but his parents insist their son is not experiencing pain or suffering.

In February, Mr Justice Hayden had ruled that doctors at Alder Hey could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

He said flying Alfie to a foreign hospital would be wrong and pointless.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his decisions. Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges refused to intervene.

The couple then argued Alfie was being wrongly "detained" at Alder Hey.

Mr Justice Hayden dismissed that application. Appeal judges upheld Mr Justice Hayden's decision.