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
BIRD FISHING

DIVING down at a speed of 75mph, this is the moment a hungry osprey caught his prey .

SEAL GETS READY FOR HIS CLOSE UP

WIDE EYED and staring straight down the lens of the camera, this intrigued seal is ready for his close up .

KRYPONITE BEACH

LUMINOUS green rocks could easily be a beach from Superman's homeland of Krypton .

SINGING STOAT

MOUTH OPEN wide, this little stoat appears to be in mid-song as he belts out a tune for his onlookers .

REAL LIFE ELF - WOMAN HAS EARS POINTED TO LOOK LIKE AN ELF

A Canadian woman who is obsessed with all things mythical has had her ears cut and shaped to look like an ELF .

GRANDMA IS CHATTED UP BY TOYBOYS AFTER LOSING 12 STONE

A grandma who lost almost 12 stone after undergoing a gastric bypass has revealed that she now gets chatted up by men half her age .

ENDANGERED GORILLA BORN AT TWYCROSS ZOO

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

SEXUALLY ABUSED AT 9 BY GRANDAD

A survivor of abuse has bravely waived her anonymity to tell how she was sexually assaulted from the age of nine - by her depraved grandad .

STUNNING CONTRAST OF ENGLISH SETTINGS

CONTRASTING settings reveal some of England’s most beautiful landscapes in all their glory .

LONDON HELICOPTER CRASH

A helicopter has crashed landed in Central London .

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 .