Of course this is an awful story. Who can blame the family, wanting to keep him alive? But who can doubt that the doctors were right - even a move to a hospice could have caused him terrible pain (he only took 2 hours to die and would probably have done so in the ambulance, without the pain control available in hospital)? There can be no winners (except, of course, the media; a great story). But nobody seems to be asking the only important question. How did it happen? What stupid prank was he taking part in? How come it led to the accident? What was it?

He was not in pain. it was not possible. And not in a coma as the press described.
The refusal of the hospice was because they thought he was unlikely to make it there, and would die in a lift or the ambulance, without his family there.

I believe his mother when she said he was "still in there" . She should know. But his body had no hope of carrying on, even if they had left the machines attached indefinitely.

His mother returned home and found him with a ligature around his neck. It is his mother who has described it as a "prank" (easier to accept). It may have been simply a suicide attempt.

I don't understand why the mother is talking about the horrendous ordeal the hospitals have put her through - have they not simply done what they could?

Of course, though, it is almost impossible for a parent to do anything other than fight to the last - how could you live with yourself if you didn't?

I suspect their grief will be coupled with relief as well that it was all finally taken out of their hands and is over.

Wyot wrote:
His mother returned home and found him with a ligature around his neck. It is his mother who has described it as a "prank" (easier to accept). It may have been simply a suicide attempt.

I don't understand why the mother is talking about the horrendous ordeal the hospitals have put her through - have they not simply done what they could?

Of course, though, it is almost impossible for a parent to do anything other than fight to the last - how could you live with yourself if you didn't?

I suspect their grief will be coupled with relief as well that it was all finally taken out of their hands and is over.

I have no idea why she turned in to a media circus and a borderline political issue. Seeing a love one on life support is hard to see and asking the doctors/nurses to switch off the life support is upsetting. No parent should bury their child but life is a cunt and it deals out bad hands. I don't Archie did a prank nor did a Tik Tok trend.

When I was at school 2 lads committed suicide about couple of years older than Archie and did it by hanging. No one knows why they did it, there was no note nor were they friends.


I know that parents who push their kids to excel in sport just do more harm than good especially when their kids have given 100% time and time again. When the pub football team got together they some times shared the pitch with a youth a league, I saw some parents actually belittling their kids or kicking them in the back off the head telling them to do better.

Parents try to live out their dreams through their children is unhealthy, just because you didn't pass the trail at a professional sport club or get a record deal after submitting demo after demo is the parent's problem not the kids. Archie seemed to a lot of MMA, I wonder how pressured he was during training or competitions ?

I blame bad parenting for the causes why kids do crime or take their own lives. I have no idea why parent's try to be friends with their kids to the 'cool parent'.

My mother thought I sang beautifully in church when in fact my voice is flat like a witch's' tit, she tried to convince me I had singing talent when there was no singing talent there wasn't even talent at all TBH.
Luckily my father knew this and told her to stop dreaming. Even when I sing a my truck I get pulled over for causing a disturbance and that my voice is distracting over road users.

I fear the Internet may be the key to this combined with the superficialisation of society. Humanity does not deal with many areas as intelligently as it should. Teenagers - and even pre teenagers - do not get advice from the right people these days, nor do they understand the complexity of life.

Wyot wrote:
His mother returned home and found him with a ligature around his neck. It is his mother who has described it as a "prank" (easier to accept). It may have been simply a suicide attempt.

I don't understand why the mother is talking about the horrendous ordeal the hospitals have put her through - have they not simply done what they could?

Of course, though, it is almost impossible for a parent to do anything other than fight to the last - how could you live with yourself if you didn't?

I suspect their grief will be coupled with relief as well that it was all finally taken out of their hands and is over.

From what I have read it was some sort of stupid Tik Tok blackout challenge, which went badly wrong. The media should be highlighting the dangers of these stupid stunts, but then they would be seen as insensitive to focus on this, even if it saves the lives of others. Personally, I wouldn't allow a 12-year-old boy to have a smartphone or get involved with a dangerous sport like Mixed Martial Arts.

JK2006 wrote:
I fear the Internet may be the key to this combined with the superficialisation of society. Humanity does not deal with many areas as intelligently as it should. Teenagers - and even pre teenagers - do not get advice from the right people these days, nor do they understand the complexity of life.

Tennagers were getting advice from their friends even in my teen years. Parents were seem 'lame'and 'uncool'.

Even these days teachers only indoctrinate and do not teach or educate. I never understood why after school activities were after school but things like art which no body fails is a GCSE.

I will never get why social media is popula,r its seems a waste of time to me. I see kids in coffee shops handed expensive ipad to keep them entertained whilst the parents scroll through their Facebook.