Following the death of 11-month-old Charlie Gard July 28, an anonymous physician at the London-based Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children wrote an op-ed in The Guardian Aug. 4 describing the effect of the case on Charlie's physicians and their families.
The physician wrote they were part of the 200-person team of nurses, physicians and consultants who cared for Charlie during his time at GOSHC. The physician notes a practitioner's "whole reason for being" is to keep all children who come through the hospital alive and "give them back to their parents with as great a quality of life as [they] possibly can."
"My colleagues and I worked our hardest, tried everything, fought so hard for this family but there was nowhere else to go. It was obvious to all those people who treated him. … We gave him drugs and fluids, we did everything that we could, even though we thought he should be allowed to slip away in his parents' arms, peacefully, loved," the physician wrote.
The physician continues, stating those not directly involved in Charlie's care should know their negative comments are hurtful and contribute to the ongoing pain Charlie's parents — and his physicians — feel following the infant's death.
"You will forget about Charlie … [But] his parents will live with this forever. They will go over and over [about] whether they made the right choices for their beautiful baby, whether they were strong enough to make those choices amid the fury of you watching a drama unfold from behind your screen," the individual wrote. "The parents' pain will be unimaginable, their loss immeasurable and incomparable. But we [physicians] will live with this forever, too."