Gym-loving James is on a roll after heart battle
Sports-mad toddler unstoppable despite early health scares
BUNDLE of fun James Baillie is head over heels – following three life-saving heart operations.
The unstoppable two-year-old has amazed his family by taking up gymnastics after spending much of his life in hospital.
When the lad was just 12 hours old, it was discovered he had a large hole in his heart and doctors couldn’t understand how he was still alive.
Now, he’s a healthy and happy wee boy who has delighted his mum and dad Liam with his boundless energy.
So much so, they have signed him up to take part in numerous other sports, including football and swimming.
Delighted mum Jennifer, 39, said: “James is doing really well.
“He’s a normal wee boy and is never happier than when he’s got a ball.
“He loves to climb things and tumble. “He loves to be busy. “One day I turned round and he was up on the living room window waving at people.”
It’s easy to see what Liam and Jennifer mean.
As they chat away, the bright wee spark runs around the living room of the family home in Markinch, Fife, playing with his sisters Mia, 11, and eight-year-old Grace.
It’s all a far cry from how his life started, born by emergency C-section at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital.
Jennifer, who works as an occupational therapist, said James was overly sleepy that first day and did not feed well.
Doctors tested his blood and discovered that his oxygen levels were dangerously low.
He was taken to the special care baby unit before being transferred to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.
There, doctors discovered the full extent of his health problems.
It was a horrible time for Liam, 40, and Jennifer, who was still in hospital in Kirkcaldy recovering from the birth.
She said: “It was awful being separated from him.”
James then spent most of the early part hospital. He underwent his first open-heart surgery when he was three months old, when his tiny heart would have been about the size of a walnut.
In November 2014, he ended up back in hospital for an emergency operation after a routine appointment revealed he had a large aneurysm. The resulting openheart surgery took nine hours and was followed by three weeks in intensive care.
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Liam, who runs his own wealth management company, said: “That was really hard because we went in thinking everything was fine and ended up taking him back to theatre.”
James had his third open-heart operation this time last year.
He has also been taken into hospital numerous times to be treated for viruses.
However, the care he has received has helped him overcome every obstacle.
To demonstrate their gratitude to medics, his parents helped promote the Little Hearts Appeal, run by Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.
This helped fund the UK’s first 4D cardiac scanner, allowing medics to capture detailed images of the smallest of hearts.
The charity has already funded more than £9 million of enhanced equipment and services at the hospital, aiming to support all youngsters treated there.
And James will continue to benefit from the charity’s achievements as he will need more surgery as he gets older, including another open-heart operation next year.
However, for now doctors and nurses are happy with how he’s progressing.
Jennifer said: “It’s been an amazing effort from the team at the hospital.
“From a health perspective, James is doing well.
“To see him kicking a ball and going to gymnastics is just amazing.
“We are so thankful.”