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
SNOW HITS BIRMINGHAM
More weather chaos is heading our way, with ice and snow already hitting areas across Birmingham .
BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE: VIEW FROM A PILOT’S CHAIR
Working at a height of 36,000ft, pilots may have the best view in the world .
VIBRANT TIME-LAPSE VIDEOS CAPTURE BLOSSOMING FLOWERS
VIBRANT bursts of colour fill the screen as beautiful flowers blossom in these time-lapse videos .
INTIMATE PORTRAITS OF AFRICAN TRIBES
A German photographer travelled around Africa where he met and photographed members of tribes in a series of intimate portraits .
BULLIES MADE MY 10 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER ANOREXIC
A mum has warned of the dangers of child eating disorders, after her 10-year-old daughter developed anorexia when school bullies branded her ‘FAT’ .
ABANDONED DAIRY FARM'S EERIE PAST
HEARTWARMING belongings lie abandoned in this eerie former dairy farm which has been left to crumble away for decades .
MAN PROPOSES TO GIRLFRIEND AFTER FACEBOOK LIKES CHALLENGE
A couple have got engaged after the bride-to-be’s boyfriend set her a Facebook ‘likes’ challenge .
ANGER AS BLOCKBUSTER ADVERTISES EMPLOYEES JOBS TO MAKE THEM “WORK HARDER”
Struggling home entertainment chain Blockbuster has been slammed for advertising its workers' jobs while they are still in them in order to scare them into working harder .
AVATAR-STYLE WISTERIAS WILL LEAVE YOU FEELING TREE-UMPHANT
A TEN-THOUSAND square foot wide Avatar-style grove is such a beauty it will leave you feeling VINE .
DIVERS EXPLORE UNDERWATER CANYON WITH 100M VISIBILITY
A diver explores the crystal clear waters of the Silfra canyon in southern Iceland, which is the only place on Earth where you can dive or snorkel between two continental plates .
HYPNOTIST JAILED FOR SEX ABUSE
A hypnotherapist filmed himself sexually abusing a 19-year-old patient while she was in a trance-like state .
RARE BRONTE POEM FETCHES £92K AT AUCTION
A rare manuscript of one of Charlotte Bronte’s earliest poems went under the hammer today and fetched nearly £100,000 – double what it was expected to get .