Chris Gard and Connie Yates, parents of Charlie, after court hearing
Chris Gard and Connie Yates, parents of Charlie, after court hearingReuters

A British Judge on Monday told the parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard that they have 48 hours to present “new and powerful” evidence pointing to a chance of Charlie’s survival and thus attempt to overturn an initial ruling preventing Charlie from receiving treatment in the USA and allowing his life support to be turned off.

Charlie suffers from a rare mitochondrial disease which has already caused him severe brain damage. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have fought a legal battle to bring him to the US to receive experimental therapy which is administered there and to keep him on life support.

However, doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where Charlie is being treated, were allowed by British judges and the European Court for Human Rights to turn off his life support so that he may die peacefully and without further pain.

The denial of the parents' right to attempt to save their child has faced international criticism, including from US President Trump.

"If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so,” Trump tweeted last week, referring to a similar call by Pope Francis to help Charlie.

The reopening of the case this week came at the request of the hospital because of “new evidence relating to potential treatment for [Charlie's] condition.”

At the hearing, Judge Nicholas Francis gave the parents until Wednesday to submit new evidence ahead of a second hearing on Thursday.

"There is not a person alive who would not want to save Charlie," he said. "If there is new evidence, I will hear it. If you bring new evidence to me and I consider that evidence changes the situation … I will be the first to welcome that outcome."