A Scottish dad has recounted the devastating moment he asked doctors at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow whether his newborn would survive after he was born with two rare conditions.
Husband and wife Del and Alana Campbell were informed that their new son Cruz would need urgent open heart surgery twice due to being born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare defect affecting the heart.
Children who are born with the condition have a faulty valve, meaning blood flow between the heart and lungs is drastically reduced.
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Baby Cruz was also born with a Ventricula Septal Defect (VSD), which refers to a hole in the wall that separates the two lower chambers in the heart.
The baby was only 10 weeks old when his parents were informed that he would require emergency surgery to correct both of these conditions, as reported by the Daily Record.
Del said: "It was the most difficult time of all our lives. No parent should ever have to ask a doctor 'what are the chances my baby will survive?'"
The couple were informed their baby had a heart condition after a scan when Alana was 20 weeks pregnant, and so doctors at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital were prepared to rush the child to intensive care when she went into labour on July 15.
But dad-of-three Del says the plucky tot surprised everyone when he was born - seemingly perfectly healthy.
He said: "Alana had a normal delivery and he was absolutely fine. There was literally a medical team standing at the door waiting to grab him and rush him to intensive care, but in the end, he didn't need any of it."
Doctors scanned the newborn and discovered, as they had feared, he had both Tetralogy of Fallot and VSD, but seemed to be coping well.
After three days in the maternity ward with mum, Cruz, was allowed home and had to attend the hospital regularly for scans for medics to monitor his progress.
However, on September 23 during a trip to Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children for one of his routine scans doctors discovered his bloody and oxygen levels dropped dangerously low and he was taken into emergency surgery at 9am.
Parents Del and Alana tried their best to distract themselves and their eldest two children during the gruelling 12 hour surgery as they anxiously waited for news.
And just before 9pm that night it finally came when the family were told the tot had survived the operation and the valve had been fully repaired - but there was still a 1mm hole in his heart.
Del explained: "That call was such a relief but then they said they had managed to partly repair the hole, but couldn't manage to fully close it, so there were mixed emotions."
Cruz spent four days in intensive care on a ventilator before being moved into the cardiology ward where over the next couple of weeks he slowly began to recover.
However the family were dealt a further blow when, on October 3 doctors scanned Cruz's heart and discovered the 1mm hole was now 4mm and he was, once again rushed into intensive care and underwent emergency surgery the following morning at 9am.
Six hours later the surgeon called Del to tell the frantic father that his baby son had been saved.
Del said: "Usually it's the nursing team who call, but this time it was Cruz's actual surgeon who called to tell us he was delighted to say they had repaired the hole completely. It was such a relief."
The tot was finally discharged from hospital on October 28 and returned home to Bathgate with his family where he is still taking it one day at a time.
Del added: "He has just stopped taking feeds through a tube and has moved on to a bottle which is great to see. Doctors say he should hopefully not need anymore surgeries until he is an adult but he will receive regular scans to keep an eye on things.
"We are so happy to have him home.
"They told us at the time that three percent of children who have open heart surgery for this don't come out alive and although those are good odds, some children sadly, still have to be in that three percent so as a parent that is very real and very scary and was very much in our minds.
"For us the staff at the hospital were incredible and managed to save our son and we are so thankful."
