THE parents of a desperately ill baby girl are facing a traumatic courtroom fight to keep their daughter alive.
Doctors at St Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth have told Darren and Debbie Wyatt that their ten-month-old daughter, Charlotte, is unlikely to survive and that it would not be in her best interests to revive her should she stop breathing.
Charlotte, who was born three months prematurely and has damaged heart and lungs, has nearly died on three previous occasions and been resuscitated in the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit.
The hospital is taking legal advice with a view to getting a court order allowing medical staff to withhold treatment that it says would not be in Charlotte’s best interests if the same thing happened again.
However, the Wyatts believe that their daughter is a fighter and has proved this by surviving so long. At birth she weighed 1lb (0.45kg) and measured 5in (12.7cm) long.
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Charlotte’s doctors say that she will never be fit enough to leave hospital and that, although they will try to keep her healthy, they do not intend to put her back on a ventilator if she stops breathing.
The Wyatts insist that everything must be done to keep their child alive, no matter how bleak her future looks. Mr Wyatt, a 32-year-old chef, said: “We still hope that one day Charlotte might come out of hospital. We have a feeling that she can pull through.
“You hear stories about medical experts giving people a few weeks to live and they live for years. Until we have no hope left we will keep fighting for her. We were shocked when they said they thought there was no hope for Charlotte.
“The hospital is trying to get us to pull the plug but I cannot do that; I would have to live with that for the rest of my life. We need to be able to say we did absolutely everything to help her. If the hospital tries to get a court order, we will have to fight that.”
The Wyatts have approached Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London to see if it can take care of Charlotte. They are pinning hopes on advances in science that they believe could one day offer their daughter the chance of a normal life.
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Mr Wyatt added: “We know that Charlotte will always have some problems but we hope that she will get out of hospital and we do not care how long it takes.”
What makes the situation all the more heartbreaking is that Charlotte is growing and now recognises her parents and her 20-month-old brother, Daniel, and smiles when she sees them. The Wyatts are unable to accept that doctors can do nothing for her.
Mrs Wyatt said: “Charlotte has problems but she looks like a normal baby and she looks around and recognises our faces and voices. She really brightens up when she sees us. All we want is the chance to care for her. There is no better feeling than holding her in hospital, even if it is just ten minutes at a time.”
The views of medical staff at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust are made clear in the minutes of a meeting between doctors and the Wyatts.
The minutes state: “If Charlotte deteriorated the staff would do their utmost to keep her alive until the family arrived but they would not transfer her to the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU), who would be reluctant to take her.
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“The trust would be prepared to go to the courts rather than send Charlotte to the ICU.
“From past experience the court would agree with the doctors as they would feel that doctors cannot be forced to treat a child in a way they believe to be against the child’s best interests — despite the wishes of the parents.”
A spokesman for the trust said that more meetings were planned in an effort to reach agreement without resorting to the courts. She added: “The paediatricians always work extremely hard with families to ensure they have agreement. Nobody knows more then them what an emotional time it is for the parents. If agreement can’t be reached there may be a case for asking the courts to weigh up the options and reach a decision.”
Joanna Walker, the clinical director of paediatrics at St Mary’s Hospital, said: “We care passionately about all our patients. When a child has a life-limiting condition we work co-operatively with the parents and family to act in the child’s best interests.”