Liverpool parents in court fight over life-support for baby son.

A hearing is taking place today to decide whether a Liverpool baby battling a mystery ilness should have his life support switched off or kept on

Alfie Evans from Bootle is 19 months old. He's is in a coma after and being cared for at Alder Hey

His parents Tom and Kate are in a dispute with the hospital over his treatment.

Specialists at Alder Hey say continuing life-support treatment is not in Alfie's best interests but the boy's parents want permission to fly their son to a hospital in Rome for possible diagnosis and treatment

Speaking to Radio City, Alfie's dad Tom said: " It's immensely hard, all we want is the best for our little boy"

"Just to go home one day and feel like his parents again. It's hard to help him, but we do everything we can"

The hearing taking place in Liverpool today will decide what course to take.

A spokesperson for Alder Hey Hospital said:

"We understand that this is an incredibly difficult time for the family concerned and we continue to liaise directly with them. "

We are unable to comment on individual cases. Alder Hey is a specialist children’s hospital which therefore means we treat many children with often complex, life threatening conditions. Unfortunately despite the best efforts of our clinicians, some of these children are sadly unable to recover from their illness."

In such a situation, medical professionals will meet to discuss the most appropriate care plan going forward, focusing on the comfort, wellbeing and best interests of the child concerned.

"The Trust will often seek advice from specialist clinicians at other trusts. The care plan is always discussed in full with the family to aim to reach agreement between clinicians and parents about the most appropriate care."

"We also seek input from the families concerned and this may extend to include review by experts instructed by the family"

"Understandably these cases place families under great pressure. We will always seek to reach agreement with parents of the child concerned but there will be some rare situations where agreement cannot be reached and the treating team believe that continued active treatment is not in a child’s best interests"