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The hearse carrying little Alfie to the cemetery was decorated with flowers reading OUR HERO; right, a poignant photo of a spent dad dozing next to his angel son. What I have found most touching through all of this is how, in all the photos we have seen,
despite the fact that he was being killed deliberately, in effect, the little boy's face never lost its expression of sweet innocence. An account here by the young reporter that Bussola sent to cover the story from Alfie's bedside, as it were...
Alfie, goodbye, but with a promise:
We shall not let your light go dim
Emotional last rites for Alfie at Liverpool cathedral
His mourners hail him as a national hero, and
hundreds line the streets to the cemetery
by Benedetta Frigerio
Translated from
LIVERPOOL, May 15, 2018 – It is dark and circular, with lights in neon colors. Outside, there is splendid sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky, which is rare in Liverpool according to those who live there. But Christ the King Cathedral was built in such a way that not a ray of sun enters it, and artificial light is preferred.
One chapel, however, has a window with yellow and white glass, which, inundated with light from the outside, makes the surrounding darkness appear darker, even as it sparks hope in the hearts of those present.
It was in this chapel that the funeral Mas was held for Alfie James Evans, celebrated by a canon of the cathedral in the presence of 130 invited guests, most in tears but witnesses of great dignity, among them, the Italian consul to Liverpool.
Alfie’s father, Thomas, who carried the tiny coffin with other men of the family, was in tears, biting his lips to keep from weeping. His father beside him, as he has been at every difficult moment in the ordeal of the past many months, kept a comforting hand on his son’s shoulder.
Sorrow assails those present, evil appears to have triumphed, as it seems that so many efforts and prayers failed to defeat the monster of all those democratic semblances that serve to wrest life away from those whom Jesus favored – the innocents.
In the Gospel reading that was chosen, the Lord says “let the little children come to me because theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”. A kingdom that Alfie has brought down to a place where darkness has reigned for years under the tranquil appearance of of efficiency and progress which has shown itself to be no less pitiless as the Nazi extermination programs.
That monster brings on great fear since Alfie’s light has shown it to us in its most terrifying features. I have seen it face to face and it is truly fearsome. But the light will stay even if everyone has tried to suffocate it in the name of self-preservation. Alfie’s Mom and Dad know it, drawn even closer together in profound sorrow. They know this and say that Alfie’s mission has just begun and they know that they, too, have a mission now.
That is why despite the immense blow from the injustices they have suffered from a State that kills its most needful children with arrogant ferocity, Alfie’s family is not in despair. Numerous and united, they remain solidly compact. And they are able to smile, to hug and to talk as they have done these many months to all those who fought the good fight alongside little Alfie.
It is a fight that continues. That they wish to carry on, to the point that despite the silence (and pro forma words of condolence) of the Church in England that took the side of the powers-that-be in this case, Alfie’s family read out letters written to them by common citizens who followed Alfie’s ordeal, one of them saying, “Alfie, you have united us in our support of you – you are a national hero”.
At the reception that followed the funeral, the centerpiece was Alfie’s name in lights, with his photograph and dozens of blue, white and purple balloons that were the symbols of Alfie’s Army. The atmosphere was one of sorrow ready to accept love. And therefore, fertile.
Along the route that led to the cemetery where little Alfie was buried, hundreds lined up, many leaving flowers, as if to say: We shall not be going away, because after many years of lethargy, Alfie has just awakened so many consciences who do not intend to go back to sleep.
So that now it would be a crime to extinguish Alfie’s light, to deceive ourselves that the darknes is really not all that dark. We shall follow Alfie’s cause going forward.
And here is Frigerio's account of the last days of Alfie and all the suspicious happenings at the infamous Alder Hey Hospital:
This is how they killed Alfie
We do not know how long Alfie would have lived if he had been treated and taken care of properly.
We do not know if additional tests would have resulted in a diagnosis and led to a cure... What is certain,
however, is that we cannot say the child died only because his life support was removed.
by Benedetta Frigerio
Translated from
LIVERPOOL, May 1, 2018 - Without doubt, the greatest scandal, taking into account everything that happened to little Alfie Evans during his confinement at Alder Hey hospital, is that he was intubated and ventilated for 15 months and was denied a tracheostomy, because only one month from his admission (December 2016), the doctors decided that he should die without even attempting to reach a diagnosis. In fact, even if the newspapers wrote that Alfie was suffering from a mitochondrial disease, there is not a shred of medical evidence to prove it.
It is certainly disconcerting that Alfie's ventilation tubes were first replaced over 5 months after they were first ustalled, and that therefore they were found full of mold, as his father demonstrated with a pile of photos (some published by the Bussola) proving the numerous negligences at the hospital in Liverpool. [Standard of care in the use of breathing tubes is that they are replaced at least every day because otherwise, they are a perfect incubator for germs and other organisms!]
Mariella Enoc, president of Bambin Gesù, who was prevented from entering Alfie's room in the English hospital, was deeply affected when she saw them. But even so, Alfie is dead not just because of this.
Alfie was subjected to terrible treatment after his ventilation was removed. As his lungs were used to being dilated mechanically, the doctors ought to have 'weaned him off gradually so as not to provoke his immediate death. But this did not happen, and he contracted a lung infection soon after the life support machine was switched off.
This is why, as Thomas was told by an Italian doctor he was in touch with, Alfie would have needed immediate antibiotic therapy, but he was denied such treatment. Incredibly, despite this, he breathed unaided for hours, even if the doctors even denied him an oxygen mask necessary to aid his now autonomous breathing.
Therefore, on the evening of Monday 23 April, after ventilation was removed at 21:15 GMT, Thomas launched an appeal asking for someone to bring oxygen to the hospital, but the police barrier at the entrance prevented any possible help from the outside. At that point, after receiving a desperate phone call from Thomas, one of the family lawyers, Pavel Stroilov, rushed to Alder Hey Hospital.
As Stroilov entered, six other people tried to follow him, and the one holding the oxygen mask in her hand was prevented from entering. She reacted with the brilliant idea of throwing the mask over the line of policemen's heads to the lawyer now on the other side, allowing him to take it up to Alfie's parents.
At that point the child, who had already been fighting like a lion, thereby proving the hospital lawyer Michael Mylonas wrong, (during the hearings he had assured Judge Hayden that Alfie's death would be immediate after the ventilator was removed), was at last helped to breathe.
But, once again, the doctors tried to deprive the child of the mask, with the excuse that it was not Alder Hey hospital equipment. Twice they gave orders to detach it, until Thomas pointed out that the death protocol approved by Judge Hayden spoke neither of oxygen deprivation nor of suspending nutrition. On the same grounds,Thomas forced them to feed his young son deprived of nutrition for a good 36 hours.
Yes, Alfie was left unfed for 36 hours, a very long time for such a small child, whose heart had already sustained a huge strain after his ventilation was violently removed without weaning.
Moreover, when the nutrition was at last supplied, it was kept at minimal levels. Still Alfie continued to live four more days defended by his parents from the doctors' threats, opening his eyes from time to time and reacting.
Then, in exchange for press silence, the hospital promised Thomas more oxygen and more life support. Two hours before the child died, his oxygen saturation was about 98 and Alfie's heartbeats approximately 160 - stable to the point that Thomas was convinced he would be allowed to take his son home soon (as the hospital administration had told him on Friday afternoon).
At that point, while Thomas had left the room for a moment, leaving mamma Kate drowsing and another family member in the room, a nurse entered and explained that she was going to give Alfie four drugs (no one knows what drugs) to treat him. No more than 30 minutes later, his oxygen saturation level dropped to 15. Two hours later, Alfie was dead.
We do not know how long Alfie would have lived if he had been treated and taken care of properly, we do not know if additional tests would have resulted in a diagnosis and led to a cure, we do not even know if Alfie was reduced to this state during his confinement in a hospital whose past reputation is nothing short of monstrous, and where many reports make the hypothesis at least plausible if not proven. What is certain, however, is that we cannot say that the child died only because his life support was removed.
The well-known geneticist and scientific director of the Bambin Gesù Hospital, Bruno Dalla Dallapiccola, had earlier said, "Little Alfie will not be able to last long without being fed by Intravenous Drip. Without nutrition, in fact, survival can vary from a few hours to a few days. Of course, the duration of survival depends on the patient's initial condition", although in the case of Alfie "we can not say with certainty". In any case, Dallapiccola concluded, "regardless of whether the baby continues to breathe independently, the lack of nutrition intake will represent an emergency".
Angelo Selicorni, another Italian geneticist physician said two days after the ventilation was removed, observed that "Detached from the machines the child has resisted for hours without any intention of dying... (which) raises some doubts about how 'terminal' his state really was".
Alfie, already weakened and subjected to violent treatment, was deprived of the antibiotics needed to treat his lung infection and then of food and oxygen for too many hours. Those who want to avoid taking a stand find shelter behind the mantra of a "too complicated case" whose boundaries would be too difficult to establish.
But perhaps what is lacking is the courage to face the facts and say clearly that this is a case of blatant euthanasia? It is clear that since the doctors considered Alfie's life was "futile", then they believed that the effort and cost involved in keeping him alive were not worth bearing, so that automatically, their medical approach could only be to eliminate him.
As Selicorni wrote: "If I consider Alfie's changing fortunes as worthless, that his is a useless, meaningless human life, I cannot help but think that the sooner I put an end to it, the better it is".
Sounds like fantasy? In 2012, controversy arose due to complaints filed by patients involved in the Liverpool Care Pathway LCP), the end-of-life treatment program then in force in Britain.
A nurse from Alder Hey, Bernadette Loyd, exasperated by seeing similar cases, had written to the Minister of Health denouncing the ways in which children and babies die.
"Dying of thirst is terrible, and it is inconceivable that children should die like that. Their parents stand at a crossroads and feel almost forced to choose this path because the doctors say their children have only a few days to live. But it is very difficult to predict death, and I have also seen a few children come back to life after the LCP had been started and then stopped... I have also seen children die terribly of thirst because hydration is suspended until they die. I saw a 14-year-old boy with cancer die with his tongue stuck to his palate when the doctors refused to hydrate him. His death was experienced with anguish by him and us nurses. This is euthanasia being introduced through the front door."
The National Health System responded to Loyd without addressing the matter: "Care for the end of life must meet the highest professional criteria and we must know how to stand next to the child's parents during the decision-making process".[Thus, they offer noble-sounding platitudes intended to cover up their implacable murderous resolve!]
[The Liverpool Care Pathway - which meant fluids and treatment could be withdrawn, and sedation given to the dying - was officially phased out last year, by government order. It followed concern that under the protocols, thirsty patients had been denied water and left desperately sucking at sponges. But a leading UK doctor claims that the new NHS guidelines on “end of life” care are worse than the LCP and could push more patients to an early grave. Dr Philip Pullicino warns that the new guidelines would encourage hospital staff to guess who was dying, in the absence of any clear evidence, and to take steps which could hasten patients’ death.]
This is what Alfie's martyrdom has achieved, apart from converting many hearts: it has forced us to unite against a monster, to look at the brutality of a eugenics system disguised as democracy. A system with unlimited power over the person is considered a civil religion by English politics and by the judiciary. It is a power that crushes so many fragile lives and spreads a utilitarian mentality that we must start to fight against if we don't want to end up in the same way.
But who knows, maybe Alfie's story will reveal much more than this, because many of us still have an unanswered question: what could justify the hospital's furious determination and fear at the idea of this child being transferred elsewhere? What was Alder Hey Hospital so terrified of?
[Elsewhere, earlier stories had come out about euthanasic practices that have apparently been common at that hospital. Hitler must be so proud in hell that his evil has resurfaced and become commonplace in the nation that led the victorious Allied coalition that brought down his Thousand-Year Reich after only 12 years.]
Hundreds of tearful supporters line
the streets to say goodbye to Alfie
by Steven Ertelt
Hundreds of tearful supporters of Alfie Evans and his family lined the streets of Liverpool today to say goodbye and pay their respects before his funeral.. They are supporting the little boy and his parents who battled with British courts and doctors to protect his life, although Alder Hey Children’s Hospital eventually won its legal battle to be able to revoke his life support without their permission.
Amazingly, despite all of the international hoopla, attention, and controversy surrounding Alfie’s death, there will be no investigation it appears. No autopsy was done.
Hundreds of devastated supporters of the little boy and his family brought toys, cards, and flowers and left them outside a local park to pay tribute to Alfie and his legacy. They tied large purple and blue bows to the gates of the funeral home where Alfie would be laid to rest.
Local residents clapped and cheered as the cars carrying Alfie’s body and his family drove by on their way to the funeral Park.
Here is more from a local British media report: [[quotwe]
Mourners who gathered outside Goodison Park for his funeral procession brought with them purple and blue ribbons and balloons – representing the colours adopted by Alfie’s Army, the nearly million-strong group formed to support Alfie’s family in their battle to save his life.
Tearful supporters, many of whom waited nearly two hours for the cortege, threw flowers and applauded as Alfie’s hearse passed the home of his father’s favourite football club after a private funeral.
Some clutched single roses dyed blue and purple, each with a handwritten message attached, and wore t-shirts proclaiming Alfie had “brought the world together”.
Many were familiar faces from their long vigil outside Alder Hey Children’s Hospital , where they had called for Alfie’s life support to continue before his death on April 28. But some said they had simply followed Alfie’s story and wanted to show their support for his parents Kate and Tom. Others, too, had more personal reasons for attending.
One woman from Anfield , who asked not to be named, told how she had experienced the loss of two children and felt she needed to pay her respects.
She said: “I know what it’s like to lose a child. I lost two, it was in a house fire. One of my children was 23 months old and one was six. Alfie fought and fought. I followed it on Facebook and we all went through that journey of supporting the family. I know how much it will mean to his family to see people here today.”
The funeral comes after news that the British government appears to be investigating the Christian organization that helped them — in what could be a political retribution for helping Alfie’s parents protect their son.
As LifeNews reported previously, Justice Hayden came under fire for comments he made about a Christian legal group whose attorneys helped represent Alfie’s family. In the courtroom he slammed the group calling one law student who was assisting the family “deluded and fanatical.”
The group responded, saying “We reject the prejudicial and inflammatory comments made by Mr Justice Hayden.”
Meanwhile, as LifeNews reported, British prime minister Theresa May defended the hospital. She argued that medical experts ought to be the ones to make decisions in such cases as opposed to parents and family.
But Terri Schiavo’s brother Bobby Schindler disagrees and told LifeNews that courts should never have prevented Afie’s parents from caring for their son, who ultimately died on Saturday less than a week after doctors yanked his life support without their consent.
The head of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network told LifeNews: “Like Tom and Kate Evans, I know how terrible it is to be powerless to care for a loved one, but I cannot imagine the unique tragedy of being prevented from caring for a child in the way that the United Kingdom and European Courts barred them from exercising what so many recognize as their basic parental rights to provide care.”
“We will honor Alfie’s memory,” concluded Schindler, “and we will do whatever we can to affirm the value of every life, regardless of condition and the right of every parent to care for their children in a life-affirming way.”
Carol Tobias, the president of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews that people need to be very clear about what happened with Alfie. She says he was “sentenced to death” by courts and doctors. She says what happened to Alfie and his parents needs to never happen to get to any other child or patient.
The pro-life leader placed the blame for his death squarely on judges and hospital officials who claimed Alfie was too far gone to save.
“Let’s be clear: Alfie Evans was sentenced to death by Britain’s National Health System and the High Court. Their intransigent commitment to the country’s faulty single-payer health system led them to conclude it was better for Alfie to die than leave the country and receive potentially life-saving treatment elsewhere,” Tobias said.
Alfie Evans ended up dying very early on a Saturday morning after the children’s hospital that was supposed to provide him with appropriate medical care and treatment disconnected his life support without his parents’ permission.
That action came after a long and extensive legal battle between Alfie’s parents and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, with the British court system agreeing with doctors by saying that Alfie was supposedly too far gone for additional care and treatment or experimental medical treatment to possibly help his neurological condition.
Alfie supposedly suffered from a degenerative neurological condition and administrators at Alder Hey, which is a National Health System Foundation Trust, sought, and received, approval from the High Court to discontinue treatment in direct opposition to the wishes of Alfie’s parents. The High Court’s decision was met with outcry around the world, and was condemned by world leaders including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, Polish president Andrezej Duda, and Pope Francis.
Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome offered to treat Alfie and he was granted Italian citizenship to expedite his transport to Italy. However, the High Court prohibited Evans and James from removing their son from Alder Hey.
Alfie’s father Tom Evans spent the last 10 minutes of the 23-month-old little boys life desperately trying to revive him with mouth to mouth.
Meanwhile, Alfie’s mother Kate has posted a poem remembering Alfie that has already been shared thousands of times on Facebook.
In posts on Facebook, Alfie’s mother and father confirmed his passing.
“Our baby boy grew his wings tonight at 2:30 am. We are heart broken. Thank you everyone for all your support,” she wrote.
“My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30 absolutely heartbroken,” the boy’s father Tom Evans wrote on Facebook.
Family friend Laura McKenzie said: “Tom and Kate really appreciate everyone coming and showing their love.
“The whole world showed how much Alfie was loved and we’ll never, ever, ever forget him or his name. No one will.”
After his death, family and supporters of Alfie Evans celebrated his life in pictures and hundreds of tearful supporters of Alfie Evans and his family gathered at a park near Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to release balloons to honor the little boy after his death. And Pope Francis expressed the kind of sentiments that people around the world are expressing. He talked about his sadness and he talked about Alfie being embraced by the Lord in heaven.
“I am deeply moved by the death of little Alfie. Today I pray especially for his parents, as God the Father receives him in his tender embrace,” the pope tweeted on Saturday.
The legal battle sparked anger nationwide in England but also internationally as people stood up for Alfie’s parents and strongly opposed courts and hospitals making life and death decisions for patients over their families objections.
There is concern that the hospital contributed to his death.
As LifeNews reported, after removing his life support without permission, officials at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital waited 28 hours before finally feeding the 23-month old boy, who was fighting a rare neurological condition. Alfie’s Father Tom Evans confirmed at the time that his son was finally being fed but he condemned hospital officials for waiting so long to finally get him the nutrition he needs.
“They only started feeding him at one ‘o’clock yesterday. It’s disgusting how he’s being treated,” Evans said. “Not even an animal would be treated like this. He’s proving them wrong. It’s time to give him some grace and dignity and let him go home or to Italy.”
The other day, Alfie’s parents changed course and decided to end their battle.
Alfie Evans’ father Tom Evans called for supporters of Alfie and his family to “stand down” so they can begin “building a bridge” with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and its staff. The statement from Alfie’s father was surprising given the animosity that had developed between the Evans family and the hospital. Hospital officials have spent months in court preventing Alfie’s family from taking him to a hospital in Italy or even taking him home.
Hospital officials even went as far as misleading courts by saying that they never said Alfie would die quickly after his life support was removed — even though they initially said Alfie would die within minutes after yanking his life support over his parents’ objections.
But perhaps seeing that there was little opportunity left to fight for Alfie’s rights and their right to take him abroad or take him home or sensing a need to appease the hospital to bring him home, Tom Evans struck a conciliatory tone.
Alfie’s parents had hoped to take the little boy to Italy in order to potentially get experimental treatment that could help his rare degenerative neurological condition but courts repeatedly denied that. Justice Hayden ruled that Alfie’s family would not be able to fly him to Italy for treatment and appeared to say that this was the final decision related to his case. He said flying Alfie to Italy could harm his health because, as court testimony indicated, the flight could trigger possible “continuous seizures due to stimulations” of the flight.
A British doctors group, The Medical Ethics Alliance, expressed its horror over the treatment of Alfie Evans that it called a “medical tyranny.”
And Italy’s Healthcare Chief has slammed the decisions by UK courts to treat Alfie the way that they had. The President of the Italian National Institute of Health lambasted the UK High Court’s decision yesterday on Alfie Evans’ that resulted it the children’s hospital being allowed to remove life support over Alfie’s parents’ objections.
Members of Parliament are leading a new campaign for a law to prevent the tragic situation happening to Alfie Evans and his parents from happening to any other family. The new campaign calls on MPs to debate the matter in the House of Commons – with potential plans for “Alfie’s Law.”
Alfie Evans is not the first little boy to be held hostage by the court system and the healthcare system. There have been many other cases where courts and doctors have made the life or death decisions for a patient over the objections of their family.
One of those cases involved a little boy named Charlie Gard. In essentially the exact same circumstance, the British courts decided that his parents did not have the right to make the decision whether his life support was disconnected and a hospital yanked his life support without their consent. Charlie ultimately died not long after that happened. Chris Gard and Connie Yates’ little boy passed away just before 1st birthday in July 2017.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/05/2018 11:46] |