''The little boy who touched the world is gone''...Charlie Gard, dies one week before 1st birthday

The chronically ill 11-month-old whose potential treatment was barred for months by the U.K. medical and judicial establishments has died.
Charlie Gard died one week before his first birthday, his parents said Friday.
“Our beautiful boy has gone,” Charlie’s mother, Connie Yates, said in a statement, “we are so proud of you Charlie.”

Charlie Gard was born a 'perfectly healthy' baby on August 4 last year.

His loving parents Chris Gard, 32, and Connie Yates, 31, took him home in Bedfont, west London, to celebrate the birth of their first child.

But what happened next captured the hearts of people across the world as the brave couple initiated a tense and lengthy legal battle regarding their son's life.

At just one month old, Charlie's parents noticed he struggled to lift his head and support himself like other children his age.

Just a few weeks later, their son was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition when he began to lose weight. 

He became just the 16th person in the world to be diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.

Charlie was transferred to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and his parents launched a desperate bid to save their son's life.   

Doctors there said they wanted the boy, who was then 10 months old, to be able to 'die with dignity' and his mother quickly found an American doctor who was willing to offer her son a trial therapy.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates began a crowd funding campaign to help finance the US treatment in January, however, the hospital - where he was staying - suggested that experimental treatment in the US would not work. 

Charlie was transferred to an unspecified children’s hospice center Thursday, after a court would not let his parents bring him home to die.
Charlie suffered from DNA depletion syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage. He was unable to see or hear, or breathe without the assistance of a ventilator.
His parents gave up their monthslong legal fight to transfer Charlie to the U.S. Monday, after a neurologist offering an experimental treatment said too much time had passed and Charlie’s condition had worsened.


After his death was announced, the Pope tweeted: 'I entrust little Charlie to the Father and pray for his parents and all those who loved him'