Chris Gard and his wife Connie have been using GoFundMe to raise money to pay for their newborn son Charlie’s life-saving treatment. They needed to raise a whopping 1.2 million euros, and although thousands of people have been giving, it didn’t seem like they would reach that goal.
On Monday, the young parents returned to the Family Division of the High Court so that a judge could make a ruling about whether or not to continue their son’s treatment.
Charlie, who is only eight months old, has mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare degenerative condition. After months of care, doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital feel that it’s in everyone’s best interest if they stop Charlie’s treatment, but his parents disagree.
Corinne and Chris successfully lifted a “do not resuscitate” order, and Charlie has been accepted at a hospital in the United States to receive a treatment called nucleoside bypass therapy.
Its astronomical cost was daunting to Charlie’s parents at first, but they created a GoFundMe page with hope that somehow they could find the money to save their son.
And just one day before the deadline to save Charlie’s life, the fund miraculously topped its goal. A total of 80,000 people donated. But, hopefully the generosity won’t stop there because Charlie’s parents have discovered they need to raise a bit more money.
They’ve increased their goal to 1.3 million euros in the hopes that it will help them pay for travel and enable them to stay
with their son after his treatment.
Update: Sadly there son Charlie passed away but they are determined now to get charlies law passed so this doesn’t happen to others.
