BRAVEHEART: BABY GIRL SURVIVES HEART SWELLING TO SIZE OF ORANGE

A baby girl has become the youngest British patient to receive a life-saving cardiac operation after her heart swelled to twice its normal size within days of her birth. Little Phoebe Whittle was just four weeks old when medics had to battle to save her life from a congenital defect which gave her tiny heart only a third of the oxygen it needed to work. Mum Charlotte 27, and husband Carl, 32, looked on in horror as she failed to breathe normally and turned blue within days of being born. Phoebe had been born with ALCAPA, Anomalous Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery, that meant the artery to her heart muscle was connected incorrectly, starving it of oxygen.As a result, Phoebe's heart ballooned to twice its size - swelling from the size of a walnut to the size of an apple. But incredibly, the tiny tot - dubbed 'Braveheart' by her proud parents, made a stunning recovery following groundbreaking surgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital

Other great stories
WOMAN BEATS BDD BY BECOMING UNDERWEAR MODEL

A woman who suffered from body dysmorphic disorder has overcome her illness by becoming a LINGERIE MODEL .

EASTER ISLAND REPLICA STATUES DESTROYED IN SEA FALL

A project to create an underwater tribute to the stone Moai statues of Easter Island ended in disaster when 15 replica structures were destroyed after toppling from a boat and into the sea .

DAUGHTER’S FACEBOOK PLEA FOR STRANGERS TO SAVE DYING MUM

A loving daughter has set up a Facebook page in a desperate plea to strangers, to donate a kidney to her dying mum .

MY 20 YEAR SECRET - IT'S NOT ALOPECIA OR CANCER, I HAVE TRICHOTILLOMANIA

A mum who has hid behind the hair loss condition alopecia for the last 20 years has bravely revealed a secret compulsion to tear out her own hair that has tormented her since she was a child .

NOSEY POLAR BEAR INSPECTS TOURIST'S TRUCK

STANDING on its hind legs, a nosey polar bear presses its paws against the window of a truck and takes a peek at the tourist inside .

ABANDONED HOBBIT HOUSE

IN THE not so MISTY MOUNTAINS of Wiltshire, there lies an abandoned hobbit house .

KILLED BY MAKE-UP - TRAGIC 18th CENTURY CELEB'S MIRROR AUCTIONED

She was the 18th century celebrity who made men faint in awe of her beauty by her very presence .

ENDANGERED GORILLA BORN AT TWYCROSS ZOO

A proud gorilla mum welcomes her newborn baby western lowland gorilla, a critically endangered species .

PELICANS RUFFLE EACH OTHER'S FEATHERS

THIS is the moment one irritated pelican nearly swallows the entire head of his unlucky competitor .

KALEIDOSCOPIC CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES

THESE kaleidoscopic-like photographs capture England’s churches and cathedrals in all their glory .

FROZEN WATERFALLS

COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .

GIRL BEATS ANOREXIA AFTER MUM PLANS FUNERAL

A teenager has beaten anorexia after becoming so ill that her mum planned her funeral .