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 HID AWAY FOR YEARS AFTER DEVELOPING SORES ON MY FACE AND BODY - NOW I’M A DIVERSITY MODEL
A woman whose face and body was left scarred for life by angry sores, caused by Lupus, has become a diversity model .
DANCER REFUSES BIRTHMARK REMOVAL TO KEEP HER INDIVIDUALITY
A professional dancer has embraced her individuality after refusing plastic surgery to remove a giant birthmark on her face .
EVIL MONSTER KILLED MY DAUGHTER OVER SECRET ABORTION
The mother of a young woman stabbed 26 times by her ex-partner for having a secret abortion has told how her daughter was cruelly betrayed by her own social worker .
HUBBY DRUGGED THEN RAPED ME FROM AGED 15 AND I GOT JUSTICE 30 YEARS LATER
Tina O’Brien, 54, from East Midlands, met Frederick Allchorne, now 62, when she was 15 .
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 .
20ST WOMAN WITH 'BODY BLINDNESS' SHEDS 10ST LIKE DAWN FRENCH
A 21st stone woman suffering from 'body blindness' like Dawn French shed more than half her body weight after a shock revelation brought her to her senses .
BEAUTY QUEEN ACID SCARE
HOTSPOT MEDIA - BEAUTY QUEEN ACID SCARE: Miss England finalist, Karla Fitzpatrick, 19, at the Miss England contest .
OLYMPIC ATHLETES LINE UP IN LEGO 2012 AQUATIC CENTRE
If you tune into primetime coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games, you’re most likely going to see London’s new Aquatic Center from many angles as athletes from all around the globe compete for the top spot on the podium .
MINI BONZAI MODELS - TREE-MENDOUS
These are the fascinating pictures of miniature table sculptures molded around bonsai trees that take up to a painstaking 18 months to create .
PARROT RIDES ON THE TUBE
Pic By HotSpot Media - PARROT RIDES ON THE TUBE - THIS pretty boy could be forgiven for forgetting his Oyst-aaarrrgh-card .
FROZEN WATERFALLS
COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .