Alfie Evans was given 4 drugs just before he died: report
LIVERPOOL, May 1, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – UK toddler Alfie Evans allegedly died within hours of receiving four different drugs from a nurse at Alder Hey hospital, Italian media is reporting. The information that Alfie was given four injections has also been obtained by LifeSiteNews from two different sources with connections to the Evans family.
Alfie Evans died in Liverpool’s Alder Hey children’s hospital on Saturday morning at 2:30 AM. According to Italian newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, a nurse entered the child’s cubicle after his father Tom had been called aside and gave him four drugs. A source close to the family told LifeSiteNews that these were injections that were administered to Alfie after Tom had been summoned for an unusual middle-of-the-night meeting with the hospital. The child died two hours later.
It remains unclear why the alleged injections were given. The Evans family did not respond to LifeSiteNews’ request for comment.
Medical advisors to LifeSiteNews said they could not understand why the child would be given four separate drugs. One or two drugs could be explained as an attempt to sedate the child or administer painkillers, if he were in distress. Four, however, seemed to them mysterious. They recommend that an independent toxicology report be performed.
Alder Hey hospital doctors had previously conveyed to the Evans’ family in a legal document how they intended to use a drug cocktail that included Midazolam and Fentanyl as part of Alfie’s “end of life care plan.” Side effects of the drugs included respiratory depression. Tom Evans called it an “execution plan” for his son.
On the night of Monday, April 23, Alfie was suddenly removed from a ventilator and his life-supporting tubes. He had been on the ventilator for 15 months, and was unused to breathing on his own. He also had a lung infection, which would have required antibiotics to heal. Nevertheless, he managed to breathe independently, and continued to do so for more than 100 hours.
Tom Evans argued that the court order leading to Alfie’s extubation did not extend to depriving the child of oxygen and nutrition, and the child was permitted low levels of oxygen and, after 36 hours without nutrition, was fed.
La Nuova Bussola states that Alfie was given more life support in exchange for his father Tom’s promise not to speak any more to the press.
The day prior to Alfie’s death, Tom Evans read to the press outside the hospital what is now being called by many a “hostage letter.” In what appeared to be a forced statement, Tom read out a letter calling all the supporters of Alfie to go home and resume their lives. He thanked the hospital staff for their care of Alfie, even though just hours earlier he had attempted to have them charged with conspiracy to murder his son. He also praised the hospital staff for their dignity and professionalism, even though the day before he said they were treating his son worse than an animal and felt like he was in a jail.
“To silence the press, the hospital promised Thomas more oxygen and more life-support,” Frigerio continued. “Two hours before death, [Alfie’s] oxygen saturation was at around 98, and Alfie’s heartbeat was around 160, so Thomas was convinced that he would be allowed to go home (as the hospital administration had told him on Friday afternoon).”
However, it is alleged that the child’s health declined rapidly after a nurse gave him four injections.
“Before he died, while Tom was away for a moment, leaving Kate [Alfie’s mother] half-asleep and another family member in the room, a nurse entered and explained that she would give the child four drugs (no-one knows which) to treat him,” Frigerio wrote.
She continued: “After about 30 minutes the [oxygen] saturation had fallen to 15. After two hours Alfie was dead.”
The Nuova Bussola reporter, who was material in setting up an appointment between Tom Evans and Pope Francis, observed that she could not be sure that Alfie’s life ended only because he was removed from life-support.
