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Fight for baby's 'right to life'
Aug 22 2005
By James Cartledge, Evening Mail
THE Birmingham-born parents of battling baby Charlotte Wyatt are going back to the High Court this week in a bid to give her the right to life.
Debbie and Darren Wyatt want a judge to overturn an earlier ruling allowing doctors to withhold treatment from the brain-damaged 22-month-old if she becomes too unwell.
They claim Charlotte's condition has improved dramatically since the order was imposed last October.
"Charlotte is doing really well and can stay outside for up to 40 minutes," Mr Wyatt said. "We have had tests carried out which provide evidence she can see and hear. Charlotte needs this order lifted."
Charlotte weighed only 1lb and measured just five inches when she was born three months prematurely in October 2003. She has serious brain, lung and kidney damage.
But her parents, who now live in Portsmouth, claim she has already confounded medical experts by surviving to her current age and deserves the chance to continue her fight for life.
And their hopes of overturning the order were boosted by a letter sent to them by doctors saying staff had been "encouraged" by Charlotte's "remarkable progress".
But Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which obtained the original order, said it would fight the family's bid to have it rescinded when the legal battle resumes in London's High Court on Thursday.
It said it believed her underlying condition of severe brain damage had not changed despite any improvement in her health.
"The clinical condition of the doctors has not changed since the original court case," a spokeswoman said.
