World News for Students of English

12-08-2022 07:00

In April, twelve-year-old Archie Battersbie suffered traumatic brain injuries after an incident at home. Doctors and his family battled in court over whether to continue life-support treatment; however, he died on August 6, 2022.

In April, Archie’s mother found him unconscious with a ligature over his head at their home in Essex, UK. She believed that he had taken part in a dangerous TikTok challenge known as the “blackout challenge”. In this challenge, young people hold their breath, or they choke until they become unconscious due to lack of oxygen.

Since that time, the boy was in a coma, and doctors kept him alive with life support treatments. Doctors declared him to be brain dead, which began a lengthy legal battle with the boy’s family who wanted treatment for his recovery. A court decided the boy’s best interest was to end the support, which the doctors did last Sunday.

Difficult words: ligature (a tightly tied or bound thing), coma (deep unconsciousness when a person responds to nothing, usually because of an injury or illness), best interest (a decision how to take care of someone who cannot choose).

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