A U.K. High Court judge ruled 11-month-old Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice facility and his ventilator will be turned off unless his parents and his physicians at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London come to an agreement on his end-of-life care by noon Thursday, according to CBS News.
"It is in Charlie's best interests to be moved to a hospice and for him at that point to be moved to a palliative care regime only," the judge said in his ruling Wednesday. He also barred the publication of the hospice facility's name and the date Charlie will be taken there.
Charlie was diagnosed with infantile onset encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, an incurable autosomal recessive disorder that causes a drop in an individual's mitochondrial DNA in affected tissues. The disorder has left Charlie with significant brain damage and unable to breathe without a ventilator.
Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates previously asked the judge during a court hearing July 25 to allow Charlie to spend his final days at home with his family. However, GOSHC physicians argued the "invasive ventilation [Charlie] requires can only be provided in a hospital setting." Nurses at the hospital volunteered to care for the infant during his final hours, CBS News reports.
During Tuesday's court proceedings, Charlie's mother requested a medical team of her choosing be employed to keep her son alive for one week, until his first birthday Aug. 4. Charlie is not expected to survive longer than a couple of hours once his ventilator is switched off, according to the report.
The couple ended their months-long legal battle to have Charlie undergo an experimental treatment July 24.