A quadriplegic woman who fought and won a legal battle for the right to come off the ventilator which kept her alive, has got her wish and died peacefully in her sleep.

Miss B, a former senior social worker, was moved three weeks ago to a London hospital where doctors had agreed to carry out her wishes, after those caring for her at another hospital for more than a year refused to take a step they regarded as killing her.

Last-ditch attempts were made to persuade her to try rehabilitation, which would not have improved her physical condition but might have increased her quality of life through the use of mechanical aids. But 43-year-old Miss B, who was unmarried, was adamant that she did not want to live, as she was paralysed from the neck down and reliant on others for all her personal care. She died last Wednesday, but the death was announced yesterday.

Miss B, who was paralysed after a blood vessel burst in her neck, made UK history last month as the first non-terminally ill patient to ask to be withdrawn from a ventilator.

The Department of Health announced yesterday: "Miss B _ has died peacefully in her sleep after being taken off the ventilator at her request."

Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, president of the high court's family division, ruled in the high court in London last month that Miss B had the "mental capacity to give consent or refuse consent to life-sustaining medical treatment".