Charlie Gard suffers from a rare genetic condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome. This causes brain damage and muscle depletion. I am deeply suspicious about what is going on, not least the role being played by the conventional medical establishment. I have three main questions.
When Charlie was born, on 4th August 2016, he was described as a 'perfectly healthy' baby, born at full term with a 'healthy weight'. However, Charlie's parents, Connie and Chris, began to realise that he had difficulty raising his head and supporting himself compared to other babies of similar age. In October 2016, as a result of his being lethargic and his shallow breathing he was admitted to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Here, Charlie went through a multitude of tests and examinations, which all lead to the diagnosis - mitochondrial depletion syndrome.
The situation was presented by the media in an emotional way. The 'dreadful plight' of the family produced massive public sympathy and the donation of an enormous amount of money to spay for Charlie's treatment. The 'worst nightmare' of the parents was contrasted with the 'heartless and unfeeling' NHS, unwilling or too inflexible to save the child's life. There were comparisons drawn with another recent case, where the NHS refused treatment for another young child, Ashya King. In terms of issues of parental choice there are similarities.
In truth, the Charlie Gard situation was probably far more complex than the Ashy King case, involving the machinations of a medical establishment which I suspect would be involved in a massive cover-up. So I will now outline my three concerns, each of them long-standing issues being raised in this blog.
It seems like the Gard family fell between two stools, two well-known aspects of the conventional medical establishment. One stool may have been concerned with denial and cover up, whilst the other was concerned with raising hopes, and making a substantial profit by doing so.
There may also have been a bit of 'professional pride' in what happened too. Doctors like to present themselves as experts, not as people who cause disease, or who sell expensive drugs and vaccines that purport to be effective when the track record of conventional medicine tells us they are probably not!
Charlie's parents fought hard to save their son's life, and despite their efforts, they failed. Yet there are important lessons that can be learnt from the Charlie Gard situation.
- What is the cause of this new, 'rare', 'genetic' disease?
- What is the USA new treatment that is now being offered, and why is it being offered?
- Why is this treatment being rejected by the British medical establishment?
When Charlie was born, on 4th August 2016, he was described as a 'perfectly healthy' baby, born at full term with a 'healthy weight'. However, Charlie's parents, Connie and Chris, began to realise that he had difficulty raising his head and supporting himself compared to other babies of similar age. In October 2016, as a result of his being lethargic and his shallow breathing he was admitted to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Here, Charlie went through a multitude of tests and examinations, which all lead to the diagnosis - mitochondrial depletion syndrome.
This is a condition where the cells of the body cannot use energy appropriately, leading to organs and muscles being unable to function properly. Charlie's condition deteriorated rapidly. He was placed in intensive care and was soon being kept alive by medical technology. The conventional medical establishment stated that there is no known cure for the condition, that Charlie had no chance of recovery, so they proposed to turn off his life support. The parents disagreed, leading to a long court battle, going right up to the European Court of Human Rights, all of which found against the parents.
Charlie's parents fought hard against this medical prognosis, which was that there has been 'irreversible brain damage', that he could not see, hear or feel, that he would never be able to breathe unaided, or swallow food, and had little or no awareness of the world around him. It has also been reported that he had fits that were "difficult to control".
Charlie's parents refuted this prognosis, convinced that Charlie did respond to their voices and touch, that he had awareness of the world around him, and they did not accept the view of the medical profession, and the courts, that his condition was irreversible. Indeed, they searched for potential cures and contacted a US doctor who offered an experimental treatment, called nucleoside therapy, which might, he said, offer some hope of reversing the condition. The treatment was expensive, but through crowd funding the parents raised the money, over £1 million. The courts however, based on the evidence provided by medical staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital, refused to allow Charlie to be moved to the USA for the treatment, as it was not 'in his best interests'. Medical opinion was that Charlie’s brain was damaged beyond repair, and that it was not in his best interests to transport him to the USA, that the risks of the treatment outweighed any potential benefit. The said that the treatment would be futile, merely serving to prolong his suffering.
Charlie's parents fought hard against this medical prognosis, which was that there has been 'irreversible brain damage', that he could not see, hear or feel, that he would never be able to breathe unaided, or swallow food, and had little or no awareness of the world around him. It has also been reported that he had fits that were "difficult to control".
Charlie's parents refuted this prognosis, convinced that Charlie did respond to their voices and touch, that he had awareness of the world around him, and they did not accept the view of the medical profession, and the courts, that his condition was irreversible. Indeed, they searched for potential cures and contacted a US doctor who offered an experimental treatment, called nucleoside therapy, which might, he said, offer some hope of reversing the condition. The treatment was expensive, but through crowd funding the parents raised the money, over £1 million. The courts however, based on the evidence provided by medical staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital, refused to allow Charlie to be moved to the USA for the treatment, as it was not 'in his best interests'. Medical opinion was that Charlie’s brain was damaged beyond repair, and that it was not in his best interests to transport him to the USA, that the risks of the treatment outweighed any potential benefit. The said that the treatment would be futile, merely serving to prolong his suffering.
The situation was presented by the media in an emotional way. The 'dreadful plight' of the family produced massive public sympathy and the donation of an enormous amount of money to spay for Charlie's treatment. The 'worst nightmare' of the parents was contrasted with the 'heartless and unfeeling' NHS, unwilling or too inflexible to save the child's life. There were comparisons drawn with another recent case, where the NHS refused treatment for another young child, Ashya King. In terms of issues of parental choice there are similarities.
In truth, the Charlie Gard situation was probably far more complex than the Ashy King case, involving the machinations of a medical establishment which I suspect would be involved in a massive cover-up. So I will now outline my three concerns, each of them long-standing issues being raised in this blog.
- What is the cause of this new, 'rare', 'genetic' disease?
Readers of this blog will know that I have always been sceptical of 'new' and 'rare' diseases. Invariably, these 'new' diseases are usually caused by pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, especially when they are called 'syndromes'! So what is the cause of mitochondrial depletion syndrome? I looked at this on the Right Diagnosis webpage, and the various pages that it refers to. Yet, as so often with conventional medical, there is no description of 'cause' anywhere - just detailed and very intricate descriptions of various Mitochondrial diseases.
Describing what is happening, or going wrong, within the body is NOT the same as what is causing the body to function incorrectly.
So this case, if the mitochondria is not working properly, there is no reason given about WHY the mitochondria is misbehaving. The reason for the misbehaviour, the actual cause of the condition, is not addressed. Of course, it is said that the condition is 'genetic', which is a kind of catch-all, explain-everything formula so often used by conventional medicine to avoid having to look into the real causation.
Describing what is happening, or going wrong, within the body is NOT the same as what is causing the body to function incorrectly.
So this case, if the mitochondria is not working properly, there is no reason given about WHY the mitochondria is misbehaving. The reason for the misbehaviour, the actual cause of the condition, is not addressed. Of course, it is said that the condition is 'genetic', which is a kind of catch-all, explain-everything formula so often used by conventional medicine to avoid having to look into the real causation.
So what is the cause of 'mitochondrial depletion system' and other mitochondrial syndromes? Are pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines involved? There is, of course, no evidence for this in the public domain. Conventional medicine is not looking to blame itself, and so will not even be looking at this possibility. But there are some indications or clues that it might be.
For instance, autism was a 'new' disease in the 1940's. There is strong evidence that autism and vaccines are linked, vigorously denied by the conventional medical establishment. One of the features of this link is that the child develops normally during the early months of their lives, but shortly after vaccination (often the DPT and MMR vaccines) the problems begins, development stops or is skewed from the normal.
This appears to be so in the Charlie Gard case. I have no idea whether Charlie was given a DPT (or 5-in-1) vaccine. Reading through the many hundreds of comments on their fundraising page I was surprised at how many people have said that their children, or someone in their family, has had this disease, or something similar. So perhaps it is not so 'rare' as the conventional medical establishment believes! If so, it is even more important to find the real cause of these 'new' diseases. But as I have outlined in other blogs, conventional medicine is NOT honest about the side effects of their vaccines, or other drugs. For instance, on the 5-in-1 vaccines, NHS Choices website says this:
This appears to be so in the Charlie Gard case. I have no idea whether Charlie was given a DPT (or 5-in-1) vaccine. Reading through the many hundreds of comments on their fundraising page I was surprised at how many people have said that their children, or someone in their family, has had this disease, or something similar. So perhaps it is not so 'rare' as the conventional medical establishment believes! If so, it is even more important to find the real cause of these 'new' diseases. But as I have outlined in other blogs, conventional medicine is NOT honest about the side effects of their vaccines, or other drugs. For instance, on the 5-in-1 vaccines, NHS Choices website says this:
"The vaccine ... has few side effects, although it's common for babies to be a little irritable afterwards. They may also have a short-lived small bump, redness and swelling at the injection site."
The Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) is considerably more revealing. Not many parents read it, not many are given it to read. It mentions allergic reactions, like 'difficulty breathing', and temporarily stopping breathing (apnoea). It mentions collapse, loss of consciousness, lack of awareness, and above all, fits. Certainly, some of these known (but unheralded) 'side effects' bear some relationship to what Charlie experienced? So is this worth investigating, is the vaccine a possible 'cause' of this 'new' disease?
Certainly, as far as the conventional medical establishment are concerned, they would admit no suggestion of iatrogenic causation! They don't want to be held responsible. It is easier to dismiss what has happened to Charlie as a 'new' disease, of 'unknown' cause, and of course, no known cure!
Certainly, as far as the conventional medical establishment are concerned, they would admit no suggestion of iatrogenic causation! They don't want to be held responsible. It is easier to dismiss what has happened to Charlie as a 'new' disease, of 'unknown' cause, and of course, no known cure!
I have written about the DPT vaccine before. The conventional medical establishment are determined that patients should not know about the dangers, and the mainstream media support them in this cover-up. In my blog, written in 2013, I outlined the serous side effects of the DPT vaccine (which is merely an older version of the '5-in-1' vaccine) mentioned in the PIL, which includes seizures and difficult breathing. More pointedly it is the only known cause of Sudden Infant Death syndrome, which is rarely, if ever, mentioned to parents before their child is vaccinated! So the conventional medical establishment is well practiced in denying the effects of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, and if they are prepared to deny that 'death' is a side effect, they are more than likely to deny that the vaccine might be the cause of Charlie's problems!
- What is the USA new treatment that is now being offered, and why is it being offered?
No-one knows much about nucleoside therapy except that it is untested, unproven, yet massively expensive. Conventional medicine has always thrived on new treatments, new breakthroughs, cutting-edge technology that is going to save mankind from dreadful diseases. Such treatments are heralded when they are new, only to be found wanting with age, and usually discarded many years later when they are found to be ineffective, or dangerous. The 'Ages of Drugs', how pharmaceutical drugs pass from being a 'wonder cure' to being banned, is something I have blogged about in 2014. Each of these treatments serve a purpose for those companies or individuals peddling them. But rarely are they of any assistance to patients, or combating illness.
Moreover, conventional medicine is a profits-driven business. If there is money to be made there is usually someone within the conventional medical establishment to exploit it! So if a pharmaceutical drug or vaccine causes a rare disease, with no cure, there will be someone looking for and developing an expensive treatment to overcome it!
Moreover, conventional medicine is a profits-driven business. If there is money to be made there is usually someone within the conventional medical establishment to exploit it! So if a pharmaceutical drug or vaccine causes a rare disease, with no cure, there will be someone looking for and developing an expensive treatment to overcome it!
- Why is this treatment being rejected by the British medical establishment?
Yet the conventional medical establishment in Britain opposed the use of this particularly therapy. Why did it do so? There are already some reports that it has serious side effects. Yet, of course, we have all been de-sensitised to the dangers of side effects, and we have all become too prepared meekly to accept these as 'unimportant'. And when a loved-one, especially a child, is dying these 'side effects' do not seem so important in comparison!
Yet however serious those side effects might be, conventional medicine does not usually prevent a treatment being tried. Indeed, it has a history of doing so, even when the treatments are known to be potentially harmful. But on this occasion they decided that the treatment would not work, and that it was not in Charlie's best interests! I merely ask - why?
It seems like the Gard family fell between two stools, two well-known aspects of the conventional medical establishment. One stool may have been concerned with denial and cover up, whilst the other was concerned with raising hopes, and making a substantial profit by doing so.
There may also have been a bit of 'professional pride' in what happened too. Doctors like to present themselves as experts, not as people who cause disease, or who sell expensive drugs and vaccines that purport to be effective when the track record of conventional medicine tells us they are probably not!
Charlie's parents fought hard to save their son's life, and despite their efforts, they failed. Yet there are important lessons that can be learnt from the Charlie Gard situation.
- No-one should ever have an illness, or contract a disease, without checking whether pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines have caused it. This is why I am developing my 'DIE's website (the Disease-Inducing-Effects of Pharmaceutical Drugs).
- When conventional medicine talks of 'new', or 'rare' diseases, be aware that pharmaceutical drugs may well be the cause, and consider what drugs the patient has been given prior to contracting it..
- When conventional medicine says that a disease has a 'genetic' cause, begin to ask questions, and research into your family's medical background.
- When doctors talk about the 'causes' of a disease, but then merely offer a description of what is going wrong within the body, be deeply suspicious. Conventional medicine does know the difference, and there is probably a reason for them not wanting to focus on cause.
