Charlie Gard's mother asks judge to give critically ill baby 'one shot' at life

Charlie Gard should be given "one shot" at life, his mother has pleaded despite a court appointed guardian and doctors saying he should be left to die. 

Connie Yates and Chris Gard will have to wait until Tuesday to learn whether they can take their eight month old baby to America for radical treatment or if, as doctors wish, his life support will be switched off. 

Charlie was  born with a genetic condition so rare it effects only a handful of people in the world. He is in the terminal stages of the mitochondrial disorder which saps energy from his organs and has left him blind and deaf. 

He has also suffered brain damage which specialists say is so severe that they cannot tell when he is awake. 

The hospital has applied to the High Court for permission to turn off his life support, but meanwhile his parents have raised more than £1.2million to take him for America for experimental treatment.

Victoria Butler-Cole, representing a guardian appointed by the court to act in Charlie's interests, said continuing life-support treatment would would not benefit him but "prolong the process of dying".

"The guardian has ... concluded that it is not in Charlie's best interests to travel to America," said Ms Butler-Cole as Miss Yates, 31, listened in tears.

"This is not pioneering or life-sustaining treatment, but a purely experimental process with no real prospect of improving Charlie's condition or quality of life."

She added: 'It was already clear to the guardian that Charlie's parents are utterly devoted to him and have done everything they possibly could to care for him, to make his experiences as happy and pleasurable as possible.

"They have conducted themselves during these proceedings with great dignity and with an obvious commitment to a thorough investigation of Charlie's best interests.

"They have truly done everything they could have for Charlie and have ensured that no stone has been left unturned in the search for some respite from the awful disease that afflicts him."

Addressing the judge directly as the case neared its close, Miss Yates said: "Charlie has one shot, one chance of life.

"Without this treatment, Charlie's only alternative is death.

"Charlie deserves his chance to improve and get a better quality of life."

Miss Yates said Charlie was not suffering and treatment was "safe to try". "All I ask now is for you to give him that chance for the treatment proposed," she said.

"Charlie's best interests have always been at the forefront of our mind." She added: "I feel that anybody would be the same as us in our position."

The judge will deliver his ruling on Tuesday.