Parents to beg judges to let baby with same condition as Charlie Gard stay alive

14 September 2023 , 23:30

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Indi Gregory was born with mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition which means her cells are not able to produce enough energy to support her body

The parents of a six-month-old baby born with a life-threatening illness that has no cure will plead with a High Court judge today for new treatment - despite doctors saying it would be kinder to let her die.

Indi Gregory was born with mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition which means her cells are not able to produce enough energy to support her body. It is the same condition suffered by Charlie Gard. who died a week before his first birthday while his parents fought in court to keep their son alive in hospital. His heart-wrenching case sparked widespread public attention, and was movingly re-enacted in BBC1 drama Best Interests earlier this year.

On Friday, Indi's parents Claire Staniforth, 35, and Dean Gregory, 37 - who have spent months at their daughter's bedside at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham - will appear at a court hearing to appeal the hospital's decision not to provide a new round of life-sustaining treatment. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust have argued it is not in her 'best interests' to be given the treatment, as it could cause her condition to deteriorate, but her parents say she is a happy baby who 'deserves a chance at life'.

Indi Gregory, aged six months old, and her mother Claire Staniforth (GoFundMe)

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dean said: "Indi is a strong little girl and a real fighter. She deserves a chance at life. The hospital wants to take this away and we are beyond horrified. She just needs time to recover so we can work out a plan to care for her at home. We know she will never be the same as other children, because she has several disabilities. But it breaks our hearts to think that doctors don't want to give her that chance at life."

Dean has also set up a Gofundme page to raise money for the family's legal battle, arguing that his little girl has the "right to stay alive". On the page, he describes the multiple procedures she has needed in her months in hospital, including a bowel operation in Leicester, and a "brain / shunt operation" in Birmingham for fluid on the brain.

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Dean Gregory, who has described his daughter as a 'fighter' ahead of a High Court battle against the hospital's decision

She has also battled sepsis and E-coli infections, which he claims which she "caught from the hospital", and has had two cardiac arrests. India has suffered "seziure type episodes" from the age of just five weeks old, some of which lasted for more than two hours. But Dean has said his family have "hope" for their daughter and are "fighting" the doctor's decision to offer only comfort care.

Earlier this week, the Mirror reported how Indi Gregory's grandad Michael Gregory, 75, from Nottingham, said it should be up to his son and Claire to decide what happens to the baby. He said: "It is a very difficult situation... it is one of those where you are caught between two almost impossible choices. But in my opinion, the courts shouldn’t decide these matters. It should be the parents. Being her parents, and being there all the time with her, they will know in their own minds. It should be Dean and Claire’s decision - not mine, and not the judges’. I just hope there is a happy ending."

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas