Wednesday, April 25, 2018
“Thank you so much for keeping us informed… our hearts are so heavy with the murderous injustice of this government…. Nita in Alaska….” —Email from a reader
“Thank you for standing up for Alfie and his parents’ rights.” —Email from a reader
“Thank you for your posts. I am in tears with every update. So much heartache for no reason. And I am sad for our world. A major call for prayer and a return to truth, I believe. What more does Our Lord need to do to shake us awake?” —Email from a reader
“No sleep for three days, nothing but torture and deprivation. Our boy continues to fight with no suffering or indication of pain.” —Tom Evans, Alfie’s 21-year-old father, in a Facebook post this evening
Tonight, Alfie yet lives…
As I write, little Alfie is still alive and breathing, without his breathing machinery, which was detached Monday night at 9:17 p.m. — more than 48 hours ago.
…but his parents cannot take him out of the hospital or fly him to Italy
However, a three-judge panel this afternoon rejected his parents’ appeal of a Tuesday High Court decision that denied their request to take Alfie to Italy, to the Bambino Gesu hospital, for a possibly different protocol of medical care…
So Alfie is alive, but he is not free.
And, this afternoon, his mother’s lawyer said Alfie is now beginning to “struggle” to breathe.
And now, a blogger’s chilling theory…
This evening, a reader sent the following text to me, which comes from the website “Alfie’sArmyOfficial,” the Facebook page of Alfie’s supporters.
I cannot confirm or deny the allegation it makes. But since we are now at “one minute before midnight,” we are in an emergency situation which seems to require some action from some new actor, and the allegation made, if even partially true, may spark such action. It is in this hope that I post the following:
“The reason the Government and hospital want this child to die is that if he reaches his second birthday, then he is entitled to compensation for his vaccine injury. Not only will this cost money, but it will make the reality of vaccine injury very, very public. The pharmaceutical/medical mafia is behind this case for sure. Why do you think the hospital won’t let him transfer to another country? Why do you think they care so much? There is a big reason. Wake up and smell the agenda.”
Alfie was born on May 9, 2016. If he lives, he will turn 2 years old on May 9, 2018. That is 14 days away.
Here are excerpts from a Guardian report on the latest events in this case:
Alfie Evans: court rejects last-ditch appeal over treatment abroad (link)
Court of appeal backs earlier decision preventing seriously ill boy’s parents from flying him to Italy
By Ben Quinn
Wed 25 Apr 2018 19.35 BST
A court has rejected a last-ditch appeal by the parents of the seriously ill boy Alfie Evans against a ruling preventing them from flying him to Rome for treatment.
Three court of appeal judges on Wednesday backed the decision made at the high court the previous day to deny the request after Alfie was granted Italian citizenship.
The ruling followed a flurry of legal arguments by lawyers for Tom Evans and Kate James, the parents of the 23-month-old, who was said to be “struggling” on Wednesday after being taken off life support.
They included the claim that medical staff involved in the boy’s treatment could face criminal charges in Italy if he dies.
The parents, from Liverpool, were not at the court in London for the hearing.
While arrangements had been made to allow Evans to listen via a phonelink, technical difficulties appear to have prevented him doing so.
However, among those present was the chief of staff of the Italian embassy, who was said to be ready to give immediate instructions to a “military grade” air ambulance that had been put on standby to bring the boy to Italy at the request of the Pope.
As the legal argument got under way on Wednesday, a man and woman believed to be from a German air ambulance crew were escorted from Alder Hey children’s hospital, where Alfie has been treated for the past 16 months.
The high court ruled on Tuesday that Alfie may be allowed home from Alder Hey, where his life support has been withdrawn following a long legal fight, but barred the parents from taking their son to the hospital in Vatican City. [Note: actually the hospital is near Vatican City, not in Vatican City, but it is administered by the Vatican.]
Mr Justice Hayden said that although Alfie had been a “fighter” since his life support had removed, his undiagnosed degenerative condition had “almost entirely wiped out” his brain matter and he stood no chance of recovery.
On Wednesday, the appeal judges heard that Kate James was now represented by a different barrister, Jason Coppel QC, who said she had told him by telephone: “Alfie is struggling and needs immediate intervention.”
Coppel advanced arguments on grounds that ranged from drawing on legislation governing EU freedom of movement through to suggesting that the child’s new Italian citizenship was a change in circumstances that should be taken into account.
An “erroneous” decision in the UK could open up the doctors who had been involved in treating Evans to criminal proceedings in Italy, he added.
He also followed the lead of the barrister representing Alfie’s father in arguing that there had also been a change of circumstances in that the boy had been surpassing expectations of how he would cope after his breathing tube had been removed 48 hours earlier.
Paul Diamond QC, for Tom Evans, argued that there had been a “significant change of circumstances” because Alfie was still breathing after life support treatment had stopped.
He added that the parents were not seeking a “miracle cure” in Italy but wanted recognition that the context in which the palliative care that had previously been considered had now changed.
Emphasising the Catholic faith of Alfie’s parents, he said that there was no consensus about what constituted dignity, adding: “Where there is a lack of consensus the court should be mindful of that. Otherwise we are in a situation where the court is imposing values on people, which is improper.”
(…)
Rejecting the arguments put forward by the legal counsel for the parents, Michael Mylonas QC, said that the doctors had never said that the child’s death would be instantaneous after his ventilator had been removed.
Contrary to what counsel for the parents suggested, there was no new medical evidence, he added. “It has never been said to this family that Alfie would die immediately or before sundown.”
While it had been suggested that there was a change in circumstances that gave greater weight to allowing Alfie to be transported by air to Italy, Mylonas rejected this, telling the judges: “Alfie stands exactly the same risk of brain damage in transit.”
He said the “tragedy” for the parents was that Alfie looked like a normal child.
Lord Justice McFarlane said the family had the “awful journey” from getting to know their baby, only for signs to appear two or three months later that “all was not well.”
The judges gave rulings on the appeals brought by the father first and then by Alfie’s mother, rejecting them on all grounds.
So that was that.
The appeal to be allowed to take Alfie out of the hospital was rejected.
Meanwhile, this just in from the capable Christopher Lamb, reporting for The Tablet Catholic weekly of London:
Alder Hey doing everything ‘humanly possible’ to help Alfie says Archbishop
25 April 2018
by Christopher Lamb in Rome
The Archbishop of Liverpool has told Pope Francis that Catholics in Liverpool are “heartbroken” by the Alfie Evans case while telling The Tablet that the medical and chaplaincy team at the city’s Alder Hey hospital have been doing everything that is “humanly possible” to help the seriously ill toddler.
Speaking from Rome, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon explained that he saw the Pope after attending the general audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday 25 April and had a brief discussion with Francis.
“I saw the Holy Father after Wednesday General audience and we talked about Alfie. I was struck by his compassionate attitude to both Alfie and his parents, and he promised me he is continuing to pray for them,” the archbishop said.
“I explained to him that the Catholic people of Liverpool are heartbroken for Alfie and his parents and are continuing offer support and prayers…”
British judges have repeatedly ruled against the child’s parents wish to bring Alfie to Rome to be cared for at the Holy See’s Bambino Gesu hospital. Italy has now granted the child citizenship.
On Wednesday evening, however, the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling denying the latest legal attempt Kate James, 20, and Tom Evans, 21 to have their son transferred from Alder Hey.
(…)
Archbishop McMahon offered his support for Alder Hey whose 2017 inspection report rated it as providing “outstanding” care while stressing hospital’s chaplaincy team have offered pastoral support to Alfie’s family and staff at the hospital since the child was admitted in December 2016.
“I am grateful for the medical and chaplaincy care which Alfie is receiving,” the archbishop said. “I know that they are doing everything that his humanly possible. And our prayer at this difficult moment is that the Lord will give everyone the spiritual strength to face the immediate future.”
(…)
It has also been reported that a priest in the Archdiocese of Westminster, Fr Gabriele Brusco, a member of the Legionaries of the Christ, administered the sacrament of the anointing of the sick to Alfie.
While blessing and offering prayers for a sick child is regular pastoral practice, Canon Law states that the sacrament of anointing is administered to those who have “reached the use of reason” and not in the case of a small child such as Alfie.
The anointing for those who are sick or seriously ill is offered to console and help but also on the presupposition that the individual has sinned in some way.
Here again is the poem I wrote this morning in honor of Alfie.
Lines Written in Hope, and Admiration, from Rome, and in Denunciation of the British Legal System, While Alfie Still Lives
To Alfie, Son of Albion
April 25, 2018, Rome
Go on, young Alfie, son of Albion,
Fearless fighter in a soulless age,
With every shallow breath, while judges rage,
To the very end, beyond all hope.Go on, young Alfie, son of Tom,
Lion-hearted soul, without a trace
Of calculation, hypocrisy or fear,
With eyes that, after all, are crystal clear.Go on, dear Alfie, son of Albion,
And may your name be praised in time to come
By a race that once stood proud and free
But now has bowed before false law’s decree.Live on, young Alfie, strong and free,
Under God, who willed that you might be.
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