Brought pope's 'closeness' to Alfie says Enoc (4)

(ANSA) - Rome, April 23 - Mariella Enoc, head of the Vatican's Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome, said she had gone Monday to a Liverpool hospital where doctors are preparing to pull the plug on terminally ill toddler Alfie Evans in order to bring Pope Francis's "closeness" to his parents, who have been battling against court orders to withdraw treatment. Meanwhile pro-life demonstrators tried to get into the Alder Hey Hospital but were blocked by police, as tension mounted on Monday. Hundreds of supporters of the parents gathered outside the hospital. "I spoke to the parents, I brought them the closeness of Pope Francis, but also of the many parents who find themselves in their situation," Enoc told ANSA.
    "The parents are not resigned, they are doing their utmost to slow the start of the procedure (of pulling the plug), but nothing more can be done," Enoc said.
    Alfie's parents on Friday made a fresh appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after Britain's Supreme Court rejected a plea to prevent doctors pulling the plug on him.
    Last Monday Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano urged his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to allow Alfie, who is suffering from an undiagnosed degenerative disease, to be transferred to medical facilities in Rome.
    Alfie's family is in a legal battle with Alder Hey, a children's hospital that says it is best to withdraw ventilation as his condition cannot be treated and has destroyed much of his brain.
    The boy's parents want to take him to Rome's Bambino Gesu' children's hospital, which is owned by the Vatican.
    Alfano asked for the parents' request to be granted to take the boy to the hospital in the Italian capital, "medical facilities of a very high level that accept him in on the base of an agreement".
    He noted, however, that "Alfie is a British citizen and Italy respects the decisions made in the framework of British national jurisdiction" and that "the British national healthcare system and medical standards are among the highest in the world".
    The Rome hospital has reportedly given the same prognosis but would be willing to perform a tracheotomy.