US expert flies in to assess terminally ill baby Charlie

CHARLIE Gard’s fate will be decided in ten days’ time after a US expert agreed to fly to London to see the desperately ill baby.

Dr Michio Hirano believes he can save the boy’s life and is travelling to London this weekend at the judge’s invitation.

The Harvard-educated doctor, from New York, will see Charlie on Monday, then meet Great Ormond Street doctors on Tuesday to argue for the experimental therapy he claims has a 56% of success.

Britain’s High Court will rule on Charlie’s case on July 25, ten days before his first birthday.

In court yesterday, Charlie’s parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard exploded with frustration as the hospital said they should be excluded from the make-or-break Great Ormond Street meeting.

‘He’s our son!’ shouted Mr Gard, 32, after the hospital’s barrister Katie Gollop QC said clinicians may not be able to ‘speak freely’ with the couple present.

Dr Hirano is a world expert on the 11-month-old’s rare form of mitochondrial disease and is developing the treatment his parents have been begging to be given a chance.

He may be joined by two experts – one from the Pope’s hospital in Rome and another from Barcelona.

On July 24 and 25, the High Court will rule on whether Charlie should be allowed to travel to the US for Dr Hirano’s therapy, or have his life support withdrawn.

Great Ormond Street says Charlie has irreversible brain damage, and is beyond hope. But Dr Hirano told the court there was up to a 56% chance of improvement, saying the disease could be suppressing Charlie’s brain and the experimental drug might relieve this. This issue was described as ‘absolutely material’ by Mr Justice Francis yesterday.

Grant Armstrong for Charlie’s parents argued Ms Yates, 31, was now such an expert in Charlie’s condition that she had a right to be there.

He said: ‘Connie Yates has demonstrated a degree of knowledge that commands respect. She knows almost as much as anyone in the UK about this particular condition.’

The judge said it was his ‘strong belief’ the experts should be left alone to discuss Charlie’s brain damage. But Mr Armstrong claimed it would be unfair for the baby’s mother to be excluded.

Eventually, the judge agreed to let Ms Yates into the meeting if she agreed not to disrupt the debate.