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
GRANDMOTHER KICKED OFF FLIGHT FOR ASSAULT AFTER TOUCHING ATTENDANTS ARM
Grandmother Janet Kirby was told she couldn't board her plane home after being accused of assault .
ADORABLE BABY ORANGUTAN PLAYS WITH MUM
TUGGING at his exhausted mum's ears, a beautiful baby orangutan refuses to settle for a nap as he begins a game of peek-a-boo .
RAPED TWICE BY MY SISTER'S FRIEND, AND HE TOOK PICTURES
Brave Amy, 18, has waived her anonymity to tell how she jailed rapist Philip Sims-Neighbour, 37, of Hylton Road, Worcester .
MICK JAGGER'S LUXURY GLASTO YURT
FEAST your eyes onthe £3K luxury yurts that rock legend Mick Jagger will be basking in between Glastonbury performances this weekend .
WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS DIVE
Standing on the edge of a never-ending black hole, this is one leap you wouldn't want to make .
TEEN DANCER ROBBED OF TALENTS AFTER SCOLIOSIS SURGERY
A scoliosis sufferer was heartbroken to learn surgery would stop her dancing - but she battled through the pain to complete her GCSE dance exams and earn A* .
ABANDONED HOBBIT HOUSE
IN THE not so MISTY MOUNTAINS of Wiltshire, there lies an abandoned hobbit house .
ADORABLE ORANGUTAN TURNS ONE
An adorable orangutan named Pongo celebrates his first birthday at Zoo Atlanta, Georgia, America .
GOOGLEMAP WHALESHARKS
DIVING boffins fired harpoons into 30-foot-long whale sharks in a bid to put the sea-beasts on Google Maps .
BACKFLIPPING SHARK SOARS DURING SEAL HUNT
Exploding out of the water, a great white shark performs a backflip during a hunt for seals .
N-ICE ICE BABY: AMAZING SKIING 2YR OLD
RACING down the slopes in her tiny ski gear, this TWO-YEAR-OLD girl has already mastered the art of skiing .