The parents of the profoundly disabled Portsmouth toddler Charlotte Wyatt enjoyed a double celebration today - their daughter's second birthday and victory in the latest round of their legal battle over her medical treatment.

Darren and Debbie Wyatt were at the High Court to hear Mr Justice Hedley discharge his year-old declaration that doctors would not be acting unlawfully if they decided it was not in the child’s best interests to artificially ventilate her in a life-threatening situation.

"Now Charlotte can get on with her life," said Mr Wyatt on the steps of the High Court in London. "We haven't got this huge black cloud hanging over us anymore."

But doctors at St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth said that today's ruling still gives them the final say in deciding what is the best treatment for Charlotte, who has serious kidney, lung and brain damage.

"Doctors are not required to act against Charlotte's best interests," said Pat Forsyth, a spokeswoman for the hospital. "In practice, this means that the paediatricians will continue to work with the parents and hopefully agree treatment for Charlotte at all stages."

"However, if there is a future disagreement we have a very clear direction from the court that the doctors are not required to ventilate Charlotte when it is not in her best interests to do so."

Mr Justice Hedley gave today's ruling after a two-day review hearing, in which the Wyatts and Charlotte's medical team provided an update on the "remarkable progress" Charlotte has reportedly made since last October, when the same judge allowed doctors not to resuscitate her if she lost consciousness.

In his ruling today, the judge lifted the order he issued last year but reminded the Wyatts that Charlotte's doctors owed their ultimate obligation to the patient and their "professional conscience" rather than the wishes of her parents.

"I have tried to set out, in a way comprehensible to all, what I understand to be both the duties and also the limits on the duties of the treating clinician," said Mr Justice Hedley. "He does not take orders from the family any more than he gives them."

"He acts in what he sees as the best interests of the child: no more and no less. In doing so, however, parental wishes should be accommodated as far as professional judgment and conscience will permit, but no further. It is vital that that is understood by all."

After the hearing, David Locke, counsel for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said that today's ruling was "precisely the judgment we asked the judge to give" and suggested that the most important part of the ruling was the judge's order that any further complaints against Charlotte's medical team should be treated with caution.

But Dr James Carne, a GP and a member of the Expert Witness Institute, said today's ruling "puts us back in the difficult situation that we were in before".

"This puts us back into a grey area and the question of what is treatment and what is withholding treatment and when is withholding treatment actually a beneficial form of treatment," said Dr Carne.

Charlotte was given only months to live when she was born three months premature in Portsmouth on October 21, 2003, weighing just 1lb and only 5in tall. Doctors diagnosed serious brain, lung and kidney damage. During this week's hearing, one doctor said Charlotte still suffered from the worst chronic lung illness he had ever seen.

The Wyatts have planned a birthday party for their daughter later today.

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