Parents fail to overturn ruling not to resuscitate baby
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《英国医生杂志》
The parents of a terminally ill baby failed in the high court in London last week to persuade a judge to overturn an order he made six months ago allowing doctors to let her die if she stops breathing.
Darren and Debbie Wyatt vowed to appeal against Mr Justice Hedley's ruling that it would still not be in 18 month old Charlotte's best interests to ventilate and intubate her if she has a respiratory crisis, even though her condition has improved in the six months since he made the order.
Charlotte weighed less than 500 g and measured only 12 cm long when she was born three months prematurely in October 2003. She has serious brain, lung, and kidney damage and is at the centre of a battle over her treatment between her parents and St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, which is caring for her.
But Mr and Mrs Wyatt, from Portsmouth, argue that their daughter has confounded doctors' predictions that she would not survive the winter and should be given every chance to live.
The judge accepted that she now needed only 50% oxygen, delivered in a head box, instead of the nearly 100% she needed when he made the order last October.
Then she was "almost wholly unresponsive, in deep discomfort, requiring almost continuous sedation, and her condition could properly have been described as intolerable." Now she did not usually require sedation, was able to respond to stimulation, could see and hear to a limited extent, and her life could not be called intolerable.
Debbie and Darren Wyatt, parents of the seriously ill baby Charlotte, appear with their solicitor Richard Stein between them outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London last week
Credit: JOHNY GREEN/PA/EMPICS
But Charlotte, who now weighs less than 8 kg, was still ill with a chronic respiratory disease that was expected to be fatal, the judge said.
He was convinced by the majority medical opinion that she was unlikely to survive even with ventilation. If she did, it would be at the cost of major deterioration in her condition, and her life would again become intolerable. It would not be in her best interests "to die in the course of futile aggressive treatment."
The judge said he had decided to take the decision now rather than waiting, as the parents argued, until a crisis arose.
Relations between the parents—who have two other children, Daniel, aged 2 years, and David, 6 months—and the hospital were very fragile, said the judge. Hospital staff were distressed by Charlotte's plight and, as they saw it, the "volatility" of her parents. Mr Wyatt had to be accompanied by a security guard on each visit to Charlotte. It would be wholly contrary to her best interests for a crisis, when it came, to be "overshadowed by a major legal conflict," the judge said.(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)
Darren and Debbie Wyatt vowed to appeal against Mr Justice Hedley's ruling that it would still not be in 18 month old Charlotte's best interests to ventilate and intubate her if she has a respiratory crisis, even though her condition has improved in the six months since he made the order.
Charlotte weighed less than 500 g and measured only 12 cm long when she was born three months prematurely in October 2003. She has serious brain, lung, and kidney damage and is at the centre of a battle over her treatment between her parents and St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, which is caring for her.
But Mr and Mrs Wyatt, from Portsmouth, argue that their daughter has confounded doctors' predictions that she would not survive the winter and should be given every chance to live.
The judge accepted that she now needed only 50% oxygen, delivered in a head box, instead of the nearly 100% she needed when he made the order last October.
Then she was "almost wholly unresponsive, in deep discomfort, requiring almost continuous sedation, and her condition could properly have been described as intolerable." Now she did not usually require sedation, was able to respond to stimulation, could see and hear to a limited extent, and her life could not be called intolerable.
Debbie and Darren Wyatt, parents of the seriously ill baby Charlotte, appear with their solicitor Richard Stein between them outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London last week
Credit: JOHNY GREEN/PA/EMPICS
But Charlotte, who now weighs less than 8 kg, was still ill with a chronic respiratory disease that was expected to be fatal, the judge said.
He was convinced by the majority medical opinion that she was unlikely to survive even with ventilation. If she did, it would be at the cost of major deterioration in her condition, and her life would again become intolerable. It would not be in her best interests "to die in the course of futile aggressive treatment."
The judge said he had decided to take the decision now rather than waiting, as the parents argued, until a crisis arose.
Relations between the parents—who have two other children, Daniel, aged 2 years, and David, 6 months—and the hospital were very fragile, said the judge. Hospital staff were distressed by Charlotte's plight and, as they saw it, the "volatility" of her parents. Mr Wyatt had to be accompanied by a security guard on each visit to Charlotte. It would be wholly contrary to her best interests for a crisis, when it came, to be "overshadowed by a major legal conflict," the judge said.(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)