Indi Gregory: "Impossible" for critically ill child to return home, High Court rules

Indi Gregory's end of life care cannot take place at home, the High Court has ruled.

Eight-month-old Indi is critically ill in hospital, and after Mr Justice Peel ruled that the NHS could lawfully limit her treatment, he was told that Indi’s parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, who are in their 30s and from Ilkeston in Derbyshire, wanted her to be given end of life care at home.

Her parents have been fighting for her end of life care to be done at home instead of in a hospice or hospital. But today (8 November) the High Court judge has determined that this would be "impossible".

Mr Justice Peel considered arguments, about where eight-month-old Indi Gregory should be when specialists withdraw treatment, at a private online hearing in the Family Division of the High Court on Tuesday. He has concluded that “extubation and palliative care at the family home” will be “all but impossible” and “certainly contrary” to Indi’s best interests.

Medics told the court that they believed Indi should be extubated at a hospice, or in hospital. Extubation is the final step of removing a patient from a mechanical ventilator.

The judge said he accepted their evidence.