A boy needed open heart surgery after doctors discovered several life-threatening issues with the organ had been present since his birth.
Leigh-Anne Love feared son Alex was going to die after the 11-hour operation to replace a valve in his heart.
But a complication with the surgery tore the boy's pulmonary valve, Lincolnshire Live reports.
Alex, now 13, had further surgery, which was successful, but still needs more care.
“There was the fear of losing him,” Leigh-Anne said.
"I stayed calm as you have to at the time. You have to stay strong for your child. Inside I was a shower of emotions.
“I was feeling that many things I didn’t know what I was feeling.”
The family's ordeal began when Alex was just 10. Scans at a routine paediatric appointment showed he had a heart murmur and a cardiologist then uncovered a number of issues with his heart that had been present since birth, but hadn’t shown until then.
The schoolboy had emergency surgery then in an attempt to widen his aortic valve. It was, though, only a temporary fix until the open heart procedure.
Leigh-Anne, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, said: “I felt quite numb – it was devastation.
“There are no words to describe the feeling – it is quite indescribable.
“My whole life flashed before my eyes. One minute everything is fine and the next it wasn’t. It was a whirlwind.
“I was petrified as he went into surgery.”
It would be three years before Alex would have the open heart surgery. It wasn't possible until he weighed at least 50kg.
So he went under the knife at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, in October.
Recalling the traumatic experience, Leigh-Anne, who has three other sons, said: "It is just a waiting game.
“The longer it went on, the more I started to believe something had gone wrong.
“It was really surreal and very serene.”
But after 11 gruelling hours, Leigh-Anne and husband James were told Alex was being giving coagulants to clot the blood to stop the tear as the tissue on the valve was too thin to use stitches and that he would be taken back into paediatric intensive care with the intension of going back into surgery the next day.
Alex returned to the ward with his chest still open but two hours later he became critically ill after suffering another bleed on his heart.
With no options, doctors put him back in emergency surgery in a bid to save his life.
“When we were told he would be going back in, we were prepared for the worst,” his mum said.
“We didn’t know what the outcome would be.”
Fortunately, the second operation was a success, which Leigh-Anne admits was a “huge relief”.
She said: “I count my lucky stars Alex is okay and made it out.
“I can’t thank the doctors, nurses and surgeons enough for the care they gave – it was second to none.
“They really made sure I was looked after well.
“It wasn’t just patient focused, it was family focused care. I have never been in a hospital where it has been so patient and family focused.”
Alex’s ordeal is still far from over.
He will need further surgery in three to five years for a coarctation of his aorta and more open heart surgery will be required in ten years to replace the valve.
The family are now concentrating on making the most of the opportunities they have together until Alex needs to go back under the knife.
However, Leigh-Anne says she will continue to be inspired by the courage her little soldier has shown.
“People always say he gets his bravery from us as parents, but it’s the other way around.
“We get our strength and bravery from him. I don’t think he realises how brave he is.
“His nickname is Alex the lion – he has got a lion’s heart.”
