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Vatican hospital offers to continue treatment of baby after courts ordered removal of his life support

The Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome. | Wikimedia Commons/MarteN253

A Vatican-owned hospital has offered to continue treatment of a terminally-ill baby who is scheduled to be removed from life support within a week.

Charlie Gard, an 11-month old baby who is suffering from a rare mitochondrial disease, is expected to be taken off life support after the British Supreme Court ruled that it would be in the baby's best interest to die because continuing his treatment would only prolong his suffering.

The baby's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, made an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the ruling and allow them to take the baby to the U.S. for an experimental treatment, but it refused to intervene.

On Monday, Mariella Enoc, President of the Vatican-owned Bambino Jesus pediatric hospital in Rome, said that the facility is ready to receive Charlie if the British government allows it.

She said that she has asked the hospital's Health Director to contact London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie is being treated, to verify if the baby can be transferred to the Vatican-owned facility.

"We know that it is a desperate case and that there are no effective therapies," she said, as reported by Zenit. "We are close to the parents in prayer and, if this is their desire, willing to take their child, for the time he has left to live," she continued.

On Sunday, the Vatican released a statement saying Pope Francis has offered prayers for the baby and expressing his closeness with the parents through prayer.

"For them he prays, hoping that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end is not ignored," Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said.

Charlie was admitted to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in October and was diagnosed with a mitochondrial disease that causes muscle weakness and muscle damage. His parents subsequently found out that 18 people have been treated in the U.S. with an experimental medication that could remedy the condition.

The baby was originally scheduled to be taken off life support last Friday, but the hospital agreed to give his parents a little more time with him. The parents said that the hospital did not allow them to take Charlie home.

U.S. President Donald Trump has also expressed his intention to help the family, and White House officials have reportedly spoken with the family to offer support.

"Upon learning of baby Charlie Gard's situation, President Trump has offered to help the family in this heartbreaking situation," White House media affairs director Helen Ferre said.

"Although the president himself has not spoken to the family, he does not want to pressure them in any way, members of the administration have spoken to the family in calls facilitated by the British government," she added.