Hollie Dance thought her son Archie Battersbee was taking part in a dangerous online challenge that went viral on TikTok. Archie Battersbee, a 12-year-old boy, recently died and people were shocked at the way the authorities handled the situation. Hollie Dance vowed to “fight to the bitter end” before her son died.
Sky News says that after losing her latest legal case to keep her son on life support, her mother gripped her coffee cup tightly and said that she would keep fighting even in the morning. She told me, “I’m not the type to just sit and cry. I have never stopped moving. Do you know I drive my kids 40,000 miles a year?
The reporter said that the mother is often seen wearing shoes made for running. Hollie is a single mom and she used to be a dancer. She worked seven days a week to feed and care for her children. “I had to pay her father to take care of them. I did everything I could to help them with their passions, like Archie’s mixed martial arts, Lauren’s love of horses, and Tom’s boxing,” she said.
Barts Health NHS Trust said Archie’s brainstem was dead and they asked the court to allow them to do a test to prove it. The Trust was against the boy’s family and wanted Battersbee out of care immediately. Hollie said: “It’s not time yet. Why don’t they let him try? People stretch for broken bones.” But in the end, the court did not listen to the mother’s pleas and ordered that all the treatments that were being given to the girl be stopped.
The mother also talked about what happened and how sad it was. Hollie thinks her son participated in a dangerous TikTok challenge that went viral. She was injured trying the stunt and was found at her home in Southend-on-Sea with a rope around his neck. Her mother immediately ran for help, cut him off, and put her mouth close to his.
She told me: “I don’t remember what happened. But the other day I got out of the hospital briefly. It was the first time I wasn’t there or in court, and I began to have memories of what happened. I felt sick.”
Although the doctors said that Archie’s brain was getting worse. But his mother still had to go to court several times. She talked about how difficult each one was, but the second High Court battle was the most difficult. Doctors said Archie is “probably dead” because a brainstem test was not performed during the hearing.
His other children who came to the session had to listen to the doctors say over and over again that Archie was dead. It was a difficult time for the whole family. Hollie was missing almost everything that was going on. Her only victory was when her attorneys were able to show that the criminal standard of proof should be used to decide if someone is dead.