Charlie Gard (4 August 2016 – 28 July 2017) was a British boy from Bedfont, London, who was born with a rare genetic condition known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome that causes progressive brain damage and muscle failure, including the muscles needed to breathe. There is no treatment, and it causes death in infancy.His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, brought him to the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in October 2016 because he was having trouble breathing, and he was put on mechanical ventilation. His condition continued to deteriorate, and the genetic condition was diagnosed in November. The doctors and parents initially agreed to attempt an experimental treatment, but after the child had seizures that caused more brain damage in January, the doctors withdrew their support for trying the treatment because it was futile and would only prolong whatever pain the infant was suffering. The doctors thought it best for the child to remove life support and allow him to die, but the parents still wanted to try the treatment.
This disagreement led to a series of court cases. The courts consistently supported GOSH's position, and the parents eventually dropped their challenge and agreed to withdraw life support. There was one more court case, about how to allow the child to die, which was decided on 27 July. On that day he was transferred to a hospice, and on the next day mechanical ventilation was withdrawn and he died at the age of 11 months.At the end of January 2017, the parents launched an appeal on a crowdfunding website GoFundMe, seeking £1.2million to finance experimental treatment in the US. Just over two months later, their target was achieved. By the end of April, before the appeal had run for three months, the total amount donated exceeded £1.3 million. In the first two weeks of July 2017, offers of assistance were made by the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome, Italy, Pope Francis, US President Donald Trump, and two Republican US congressmen.
On 22 July, the chairwoman of GOSH made a statement condemning "thousands of abusive messages", including death threats received by staff at the hospital and harassment of other families in the hospital over the preceding weeks. GOSH also requested the Metropolitan Police Service to investigate the abuse. Gard and Yates issued a statement condemning harassment of GOSH staff and said they had also received abusive messages.
