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Indi Gregory, an 8-month-old child suffering from a degenerative disease who was at the center of a legal battle in the U.K. to keep her on life support, is pictured Sept. 22, 2023, the day of her baptism. Indi died on Nov. 13, 2023.
OSV News photo/courtesy Indi Gregory family via Christian Concern
November 13, 2023
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OSV News photo/Reuters
NOTTINGHAM, England
Indi Gregory, a British girl whose parents battled the British courts to have her life support extended, died at 1:45 a.m. U.K. time Nov. 13.
In a statement, Indi's father, Dean Gregory, said he and his wife, Claire, "are angry, heartbroken and ashamed. The NHS (National Health Service) and the Courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi's dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged."
Jacopo Coghe, spokesman for Italian pro life foundation Pro Vita Famiglia, shared the father's words on X, formerly Twitter.
"They did succeed in taking Indi's body and dignity, but they can never take her soul," Dean Gregory said. "They tried to get rid of Indi without anybody knowing, but we made sure she would be remembered forever."
"I knew she was special from the day she was born," the father said, adding that his wife "held her for her final breaths."
Indi suffered from a rare metabolic disorder known as mitochondrial disease, and her family was fighting a court order that she be removed from life support, as was the case of several other children in the past, including Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard.
Indi, who was 8 months old, was transferred from the Queen's Medical Center in Nottingham to a hospice Nov. 11, according to at Nov. 12 statement issued by Christian Concern, an advocacy group helping the family. The statement confirmed the infant's life support was removed as per the Nov. 10 ruling from the Court of Appeal.
According to Christian Concern, Indi was transferred from the hospital to an ambulance with a security escort. The police were present outside of the hospital.
Indi was then transferred to a hospice without incident and was relaxed and slept during the journey, the group said.
At the hospice her life support was removed. At some point she stopped breathing during the night between Nov. 11 and 12, but then recovered.
"She is fighting hard," her father said at that point.
The Vatican released a statement Nov. 11 saying that: "Pope Francis embraces the family of little Indi Gregory, her father and mother, prays for them and for her, and turns his thoughts to all the children around the world in these same hours who are living in pain or risking their lives because of disease and war."
Indi was granted Italian citizenship Nov. 9 with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally engaged in the state's wish to bring the little girl to Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome for further treatment.
On the evening of Nov. 10, some of the most senior judges in the U.K. ruled however that the Italian intervention in Indi's case under the Hague Convention, which Italy cited in its appeal, was "wholly misconceived" and "not in the spirit of the convention."
Justices Peter Jackson, Eleanor King and Andrew Moylan refused the family permission to appeal a ruling that said Indi's life support could not be removed at home.
Instead they ordered that Indi's life support be removed immediately.
The Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital in Rome had agreed to accept Indi for treatment and to carry out the right ventricular outflow tract stent procedure that was put forward by medical experts. The Italian government had offered to fund the treatment at no cost to the NHS or U.K. taxpayers.
The U.K. government has continued to refuse to comment on the case.
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