Last October Charlotte Wyatt was given just months to live after St Mary’s hospital in Portsmouth won the right not to provide life-saving treatment if her condition deteriorated.

But now hospital sources admit the 18-month-old baby may live on for “a considerable time” — potentially years rather than months.

At present, Charlotte is in an oxygen box most of the day to to ensure she has sufficient supply and to stop her breathing contaminated air. She can only come out for short spells when her parents visit. However, her breathing has improved: if the 60% of oxygen she needs from the artificial supply could be reduced to 30%, she would be able to go home with the aid of an oxygen mask.

Her survival has confounded predictions by doctors who told the High Court last autumn that she would catch an infection during the winter that would prove fatal if the hospital did not resuscitate her. Ventilating Charlotte would be “purposeless and intolerable to her” and she should be allowed to pass away peacefully, they said.

After lasting the winter, however, she was observed by her parents, Darren and Debbie Wyatt, from Portsmouth, to have limited sight and hearing. They returned to court in March to ask for the “do not resuscitate” order to be lifted. The court’s judgment is due this week.

The Wyatts asked that if Charlotte’s condition declined to the point that she needed resuscitation, she should be put on a ventilator for at least five days to give her a chance of survival.

A medical report commissioned by the couple’s solicitors confirmed that Charlotte was no longer in constant pain and that she had started to respond to lights and sound. But doctors at St Mary’s still believe ventilating Charlotte would not be in her best interests as it would only postpone her death and prolong her suffering.

This weekend a hospital source said: “It would be inappropriate to ventilate Charlotte as this could do her more damage and it would serve no purpose. Our clinicians have made a very considered judgment and I cannot imagine that the court will change its mind.”

Charlotte, who was born prematurely weighing just 1lb, will remain seriously disabled. Although her lungs have got stronger since October, her brain has not grown.

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that even before this latest court hearing in March, the legal action has cost Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs St Mary’s, about £115,000.

The dispute has taken a huge emotional toll on the Wyatts and the doctors caring for Charlotte, who is now being treated by her third paediatrician because of the strained relationship between the family and hospital staff. This weekend Carol Glass, a friend of the Wyatts, said: “With the right treatment, Charlotte could live on.”

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