Archie Battersbee Dies: Boy Who Joined TikTok's Blackout Challenge Ends Four-Month Battle After His Life Support Was Turned Off

Archie Battersbee Hollie Dance Paul Battersbee Lalani Erika Renee Walton Arriani Jaileen Arroyo Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Aug 07, 06:28 pm

Archie Battersbee, the twelve-year-old boy whose parents fought for a long-running legal battle for months for his life support treatment not to be removed, has unfortunately died.

Hollie Dance, Archie's mother, confirmed that her son is no longer with them but said that he fought right until the very end and made sure that he did everything she promised to her son. Archie passed on August 6, at 12:15 in the afternoon and his mom is the proudest as the young boy grew up beautifully and remained strong and also fought until the end along with his family and friends which became one of the reasons why the British mom is proud.

Hollie and her former husband, Paul Battersbee, had applied to a UN committee that requested for the son's ending of treatment be postponed, per Daily Star.

Allegedly participating in a disturbing online trend

The little boy was found by his mother unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7. The mother thinks that her son may have been taking part in a challenge that was known on TikTok and is commonly called Blackout Challenge. The challenge was very disturbing as people, usually young ones, are encouraged to choke themselves until they become unconscious due to the lack of oxygen.

It is still unclear until now who invented and started the said viral trend.

Hollie told the audience about the disturbing and dangerous challenges and if parents trying to use Archie as the topic to address such challenges, she hopes that it will be discussed thoroughly and every challenge that seems disturbing will be discussed and not just what happened to Archie.

Once parents start to look into it, they will find out that it's frightening. The mother shows her regret by not discussing the disturbing challenges he might see on social media, especially on TikTok, and said if she only talked about it, they wouldn't be in the hospital now. Two other children who became victims of the said challenge was Lalani Erika Renee Walton (eight-year-old) from Texas and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo (nine-year-old) from Wisconsin.

Ella Carter, a relative of the family said "There is absolutely nothing dignified about watching a family member or a child suffocate. No family should ever have to go through what we have been through - it is barbaric," per The Guardian.

The ruling of the court over Archie's situation

Judge Andrew McFarlane, on the hearing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, under which the UN committee made its request, explained that it is an unincorporated international treaty and therefore it should not have been applied by a UK court. Every single day when the little boy continues to be given life-sustaining treatment is opposed to his best interests.

Hollie is shocked after knowing the ruling and said they were traumatized by the brutality of the UK court and the hospital trust but despite all of that, they will continue to fight for Archie.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Blackout Challenge is related to the choking game which ended the lives of 82 children between the ages of 6 and 19 in the United States between 1995 and 2007, per Digital Trends.