LONDON (Reuters) - The father of a seriously ill baby girl fought on Friday against a hospital's request to allow her to die if she stops breathing, saying he and his wife were not yet ready to let her go.
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking a court order to allow Charlotte Wyatt to die with dignity if she stops breathing again. They want permission not to resuscitate her.
But her father, 33-year-old Darren Wyatt, told Justice Hedley at London's High Court he considered his 11-month-old daughter was "a fighter" and that everything possible should be done to keep her alive.
"When you get to the stage when you grow to love someone, you can't just throw them away like a bad egg and say you will get a different egg," said Wyatt, whose 23-year-old wife Debbie was also in court.
Charlotte has fought for survival all of her short life. When she was born three months early at St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth almost a year ago she weighed just one pound and was only five inches long.
Since then, she has remained in hospital and her breathing has stopped three times as a result of serious heart and lung conditions. She is fed through a tube and needs oxygen all the time. Specialists say she cannot survive beyond infancy and do not believe she will ever be able to leave hospital.
However, Wyatt and his wife, who are now expecting a third child, say they have grown to love her and believe things can still be done to help prolong her life.
Wyatt said that if the stage were reached where all hope had gone then he and his wife would be prepared to hold and comfort her for her last moments and "let her go."
"But at the moment she is not at that stage," he told the judge.
The hospital trust, however, has told the Wyatts it would be against the child's interests to artificially resuscitate her because she lives in constant pain and has a very poor quality of life.
The hearing continues.
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