ELEANOR’S LIKE ‘NEW BABY’

PREGNANT Nia Roderick was having her 20-week scan when medics discovered something seriously wrong with her unborn daughter Eleanor’s heart.

The two main blood vessels leaving the heart, the pulmonary and aorta, had swapped which would lead to certain death without an operation.

But thanks to NHS surgeons, who performed a 10-and-a-half hour pro- cedure on the tot at just six months old, she is now expected to lead a full and healthy life.

“I will never be able to thank them enough for what they’ve done for Eleanor,” said Nia, from Llanelli. “Since she’s had the operation she’s a completely different baby. We’ve seen such a change in her. She was so poorly before. Now she’s like a new baby.”

Nia needed to make regular visits to both Bristol and Cardiff hospitals after Eleanor was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries, a form of congenital heart disease. The condition means that blood is able to flow to the lungs and pick up oxygen – but is then pumped back to the lungs instead of around the body.

“When she was born they also found quite large holes in her heart, which actually meant that some oxygen was able to flow around her body,” added Nia.

“But after a while she could be left with permanent lung damage, so an operation would eventually be necessary.”

Eleanor was born weighing 5lb at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol and was sent to Bristol Children’s Hospital where she remained for nine days.

Eleanor suffered heart failure at just two weeks old.

“They found out her heart wasn’t functioning as it should and they admitted her to Cardiff [University Hospital of Wales],” added Nia. “A week later she was sent back to Bristol for a small procedure which didn’t involve open heart surgery.

“We were then allowed home but