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
I LOST 13 STONE AFTER EX SAID MY BELLY WAS TOO BIG FOR SEX

AFTER splashing out on sexy black lingerie, Paige Way was excited for a romantic night away at a swanky hotel with her boyfriend .

NAKED SLACKLINERS TACKLE NEW CHALLENGES

BALANCING 30 metres above ground, these slackliners take the expression of living dangerously one step further, by tightrope walking NAKED .

FISH FIGHT

FINALLY catching a meal, a pair of great white egrets fight over their dinner .

DOUBLE OR NOTHING: TWINS SPEND £150,000 TO LOOK IDENTICAL

TWIN SISTERS from Australia have taken their sisterly bond to the extreme by spending £150,000 to look IDENTICAL .

OWNER REUNITED WITH PETLOG CAT AFTER KEEPERS HAND HIM BACK

A family who were refused the location of their missing cat under the Data Protection Act have been reunited with their moggie after the keepers handed him back .

FROG FRIENDS

PERCHED on a branch, these two frogs hold hands as they look into the camera .

ADORABLE SQUIRREL GETS READY FOR A SNOWBALL FIGHT

ROLLING up snow in its tiny paws, this little squirrel is looking for a snowball fight .

POLYAMOROUS TRIO: I SHARE A HOUSE WITH MY TWO BOYFRIENDS AND OUR CHILDREN

Sunny Saap, 27, from Columbia, Missouri, United States, enjoys life with her two boyfriends .

REAL LIFE VICTORIAN

A woman has taken her house back in time - by spending £10,000 to transform it into her Victorian dream home .

Korean Mass Games

These are the amazing close up pictures of North Korea's mass games - after photographers were previously banned from taking shots so close to the dazzling formation dances .

THE FIRST LADY OF FASHION APP

She was recently named Best Dressed Woman in a new list and is regarded as one of the most stylish women in the world .

LIFE-LIKE PENCIL DRAWINGS

AT first glance these images could easily be mistaken for photographs, but they are in-fact real life drawings created using nothing but coloured pencils .