By Pamela McGowan

Last updated at 17:12, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

JUST three weeks ago the parents of little Theo Giles Davies were watching their baby fight for his life, knowing that if he didn’t get a new heart he would not survive.

Theo Giles Davies

But the tiny youngster, who turned one last week, has battled hard to stay alive and now, against all the odds, his family have been told he no longer needs an urgent transplant.

Parents Ryan Davies and Rebecca Giles have been told they may be able to take him home within weeks.

This news, described by his family as nothing short of a miracle, follows a series of last-ditch operations to give the Keswick tot more time.

Brave Theo suffers from hyperplastic left heart syndrome, which means he was born with half a heart.

He has been in the intensive care unit at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital for several weeks, desperately waiting for a heart to become available.

At one point doctors were forced to consider turning off his life support machine, but little Theo – who celebrated his first birthday in hospital – refused to give up.

He surprised everyone by starting to breath on his own again, enabling him to come off the ventilator, and has continued to battle on.

Now, following an operation to improve his lung pressure and another to improve the blood flow through his heart, Theo has taken vital steps on the road to recovery.

He is now out of intensive care and his parents have been told he no longer needs an urgent heart transplant.

Although he will need the operation eventually, he will first undergo a series of operations to give him more time.

Doctors hope that this will delay the need for the transplant into his later childhood or even teenage years.

Mum Rebecca told the News & Star: “We can’t believe it, it seems like a miracle. He has done so well, through all of this he has kept fighting and refused to give up.

“He’s still got a long way to go but from where we were a few weeks ago it’s just amazing.”

Doctors hope she and Ryan will finally be able to take Theo home to Keswick within the next few weeks.

He will then have to go back into hospital for a further operation in around six weeks, as part of a three-stage treatment plan that will hopefully delay his need for a transplant for many years to come.

“It will give him more time and hopefully, by the time he needs the transplant, he will be much stronger and healthier,” added Rebecca.

First published at 13:40, Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk