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 PARALYSED BY EX CAMPAIGNS AGAINST CYBERSTALKING

A woman who was cyberstalked before being shot and paralysed by her ex-husband is campaigning to raise awareness for stalking victims .

AMAZING 3D DRAWINGS

THIS may look like a dolphin through jumping hoops, but it is in fact nothing more than a clever 3D pencil drawing .

FROZEN WATERFALLS

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

WOMAN SPENDS £30K ON HELLO KITTY ADDICTION 

A shoe designer from London has spent a whopping £30,000 on Hello Kitty memorabilia .

WOMAN'S CAR BURST INTO FLAMES AFTER A SEIZURE CAUSED HER TO CRASH INTO A TREE – SHE SUFFERED BURNS TO 40% OF HER BODY AND NOW SHE'S A TRIPLE AMPUTEE

Marisah pictured today with scarring to her left arm - A mother-of-one has revealed how she almost died after suffering a seizure whilst driving that caused her car to crash into a tree and burst into flames .

SHOP BRANDED RACIST FOR ‘ZIP UP IMMIGRANT’ AD

A SHOCKING cartoon of a black man carrying bags saying‘’zippadydoohdah zip-up immigrant bags’ has appeared in a shop window and is being investigated by police .

JUSTIN BIEBER FAN LOSES 7 STONE TO BE HIS 'GIRLFRIEND'

Bryanna Debinder, 20, from Pennsylvania in the USA, has lost 7 stone in order to impress her idol .

IT'S A WATERING CAN-VAS

AS graffiti goes, this giant mural of a sweet little girl tenderly watering a tree beneath her is a far cry from what you usually see emblazoned across cities .

BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES CAPTURED ACROSS EUROPE

From the crisp, snow clad mountains to vivid bright blue rivers, these breath-taking photographs capture the incredible beauty of various landscapes across France and Italy .

CHEEKY MONKEY KEEPS UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST NEWS

A small Indian monkey is seemingly gob-smacked after reading the latest stock market news .

SLEEP DISORDER WOMAN COLLAPSES EVERY TIME SHE LAUGHS

A woman with a rare condition that means she collapses every time she laughs fears she may have passed the rare illness onto her young son .

SMALLEST HOUSE IN THE UK

WELCOME to the pretty 122-inch-tall red dwelling that lays claim to the title of the UK's smallest house .