SARAH VINE: Why I changed my mind on Charlie Gard

SARAH VINE: Why I changed my mind on Charlie Gard

When the Charlie Gard case first came to light, I confess I took the side of the Great Ormond Street doctors. 

These people know their onions, I reasoned. They would never let a child go if there were the slightest scintilla of hope.

Then I heard Charlie’s mother, Connie Yates, being interviewed on Monday’s Today Programme. And I began to have doubts.

It wasn’t just Connie’s calm eloquence. It was what she said about trusting the instincts of a parent. About how she, as his mother, knew Charlie better than anyone else. And that, when it came to what was best for their son, she was the true expert.

That really struck a chord. Not because I don’t have faith in the medics treating Charlie, but because of something that happened when my own son, Will, was very small.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates with their terminally ill baby son Charlie Gard. An anonymous donor has given more than £27,000 to a fund for the terminally ill baby at the centre of a life-support treatment dispute even though a High Court judge has ruled the boy should be allowed to 'die with dignity'

Charlie Gard's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard (right) stand outside the High Court in London as a statement is read by a family friend following the adjournment of a hearing in their latest bid to see him treated with an experimental therapy

Charlie Gard  in bed with a cloth under his chin and flanked by two monkey soft toys and a tube up his nose

At around four months, his behaviour suddenly changed. Not in a way that most people would have noticed, but I did. Having been an enthusiastic feeder, his appetite decreased and he began waking often during the night.

His crying changed, too. Again, not anything obvious, but the pitch, to my maternal bat-ear, was just that little bit off.

This went on for several weeks. Each time I took him to see the midwife, she would look him over and tell me not to worry. He was just growing. Probably teething. Had I tried Calpol? But I was convinced something was wrong.

One morning, after a bad night, I woke early. He was lying next to me, sleeping at last, his long dark lashes flickering as he dreamed.

As I stroked his fat cheek, I noticed something strange. His right ear appeared to have moved. It was rigid to the touch, and sticking out at a slight angle.

This time I didn’t bother the midwife. The GP had no appointments but I lurked until the end of morning surgery and then nabbed him on his way out. 

Michael Hayes - a liar and a murderer

More than four decades after the Birmingham pub bombings, IRA bomb-maker Michael Hayes has apologised for making the devices that killed 21 people. 

He says he ‘had no intention of hurting anybody’. 

Sorry, what did h e think was going to happen?

Hayes has also been linked to other bombings, including the Brighton and Harrods attacks. 

Yet he says: ‘I can sleep at night because I am not a murderer.’

I think the relatives of those who died might disagree.

Could he please just take a look at my boy. Silly, I know, but one of his ears seems to have moved …

Carefully, quickly, he examined him. Then he picked up the phone and rang the hospital. He couldn’t be certain, he explained, because he had never actually seen a case, only studied it at medical school; but he thought Will had something called mastoiditis.

Relatively common before the advent of antibiotics, it occurs when an infection spreads to the mastoid bone behind the ear â€" a honeycomb structure that amplifies sound. 

If left untreated, an abscess forms between the bone and the brain, causing pressure and, ultimately, death.

That was why Will’s ear had moved: the abscess that was pressing on his brain had pushed it out of place.

The infection was too advanced for intravenous antibiotics, so we were transferred to St George’s in Tooting. 

A paediatric surgeon drilled a hole in the side of his head to drain the fluid, and packed it with antibiotics. Then it was just a question of waiting.

Those weeks at St George’s were some of the most difficult of my life â€" but I was one of the lucky ones. 

Sure, it was agonising watching the nurses trying to fix a line in veins that were too small for even the finest needle, but they did it. And the medicine was working.

Once Will was better, they set about investigating the cause of the infection, with endless scans, blood tests and screenings.

They needn’t have bothered. I knew precisely what had caused it: the health visitor’s insistence that Will was too young to have antibiotics for an ear infection.

An infection that I had spotted and, mindful of my own family history of serious ear infections, had wanted to treat aggressively.

But she wasn’t having any of it. I was breastfeeding, he had my antibodies, so it would mend itself. After all, she was the expert â€" and I just a neurotic mother.

She meant no harm, of course, and I am sure she was only following best practice. As, no doubt, are the doctors at Great Ormond Street. But for all their expertise, they are not Charlie’s mother. 

They will never know him â€" or love him â€" like she does.

That is why Charlie must be allowed his treatment, however unlikely (on paper) the chances of success. 

Because if his mother thinks he can make it, then maybe â€" just maybe â€" he can.

Parents of Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, deliver a petition with more than 350,000 signatures to Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, supporting their case that the terminally-ill baby should be allowed to travel to receive treatment 

Nicholas Francis QC who was appointed a Justice of the High Court with effect from October 6 2016, assigned to the Family Division

Reading my colleague Robert Hardman’s gripping report of the appearance of Charlie Gard’s parents at the High Court on Monday, I was struck by his account of the behaviour of Katie Gollop QC, acting for Great Ormond Street.

Pitching her razor-sharp barrister mind against two people clearly weak with grief and exhaustion, she accused them of inconsistencies in evidence and wasting hospital time, as though Charlie’s parents were on trial. 

Presiding, Mr Justice Francis â€" who faces an impossible task â€" did his best to show sympathy for the couple.

But a courtroom is, by definition, an adversarial environment. 

With cases such as Charlie’s, isn ’t it time we found a more humane way to debate the complex ethical questions involved? 

Amber Davies from series three of Love Island

I’m not sure it’s quite right to call ITV’s Love Island ‘Shakespearean’ in nature, as writer Elizabeth Day has. I would say it’s more Chaucerian, both in tone and content.

After all, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) was instrumental in legitimising the use of vulgar English in his work â€" and the contestants of Love Island are nothing if not vulgar.

In fact, the entire premise brings to mind the most famous of his Canterbury Tales, that of the Wife of Bath, who narrates the story of a knight charged by Queen Guinevere with resolving the conundrum of what it is that women most desire.

The answer? Not money, fine possessions, flattery or sexual pleasure, but independence and sovereignty over their husbands. 

If Love Island is anything to go by, looks like women’s standards have fallen considerably since the 1390s.

What did you get up to with your kids at the weekend? 

Family barbecue maybe? Liz Hurley's son Damian, 15, apparently spent his Sunday afternoon taking pictures of his 52-year-old mother striking yoga poses while wearing nothing but a miniscule red string bikini. 

Of course, 15-year-old boys are known for their fascination with bikini-clad females. 

But that doesn't generally include their own mothers. e

The Instagram picture uploaded by Liz Hurley, in which she credited her son Damian with taking the photograph

Almost every so-called clean eating guide or detox is adamant about one thing: coffee â€" and caffeine in general â€" is evil. 

So how satisfying to see that, according to a huge study at Imperial College London, drinking three cups of the black nectar a day is actually the key to a longer life. 

Combine that with studies about the therapeutic effects of red wine, and I’m confidently expecting to live to around 150.

All credit to Theresa May for acting decisively and removing the whip from MP Anne Marie Morris after she foolishly let slip the n-word in a public meeting.

If only Jeremy Corbyn were equally ro bust in dealing with the vile anti-Semitism in his party.

Andy Murray wins Wimbledon on Centre Court last year

Is It sexist that Wimbledon’s Centre Court is dominated by the men’s matches? 

Of course â€" and for very good reason. 

The men’s game tends to be faster paced and more thrilling than the women’s, so more fun to watch.

It’s not a criticism, just a fact.

One way to resolve this would be to have a dedicated men’s court and a dedicated women’s court, and see which gets more spectators. 

I think we all know the answer, but at least it might stop the femi-bores for a while. 

The astonishing thing about Harper Beckham’s party at Buckingham Palace is not so much that it took place, but that her parents are either too vain or too stupid to realise that there are some things you don’t share with your 55 million Instagram followers. 

Then again, I guess traffic is money in this internet age â€" and what are children if not an opportunity to boost one’s net worth?

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