Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center, specializes in treating rare genetic conditions.
LONDON — An American doctor will meet with medics caring for Charlie Gard, a terminally ill British baby whose parents are battling in the courts for him to receive experimental treatment in the United States.
Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center who specializes in treating rare genetic conditions, will also meet with Connie Yates, the 11-month-old infant’s mother, on Monday and Tuesday.
Charlie suffers from a rare incurable condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome and has brain damage, is blind and deaf and cannot breathe without a ventilator.
Great Ormond Street Hospital in London was scheduled to turn off the baby’s life support last month after his parents — Chris Gard, 32 and Yates, 31 — lost an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to take him to the U. S. for trial therapy.
The hospital applied for a new court hearing after experts at the Vatican children’s hospital in Italy said unpublished research suggested that Charlie’s condition might improve if he gets the experimental nucleoside therapy. The hearing started last week at the High Court in London.
The therapy has reduced the symptoms of certain types of mitochondrial disease in mice but has never been used on mice or people with Charlie’s condition.
Pope Francis and President Trump have both intervened to try and help Charlie and his parents, who have raised $1.7 million for Charlie’s treatment in the U. S. through crowdfunding.
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