The parents of 'wonderful' 10-year-old girl from Liverpool are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the open heart surgery that saved their daughter's life.
They want to raise awareness of the importance of research into heart defects that 'made the operation possible.'
Izabella Toole was born prematurely at just 34 weeks at Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2011 weighing just 1.7kg.
READ MORE: Mum's life 'transformed in 10 minutes' after waking up in intensive care
After initially appearing well, she began having breathing difficulties and spent the first few days of her life in intensive care on life support.
At just 12 days old her parents were given the devastating diagnosis that she had a ventricular septal defect (VSD) - a hole in the wall separating the two heart valves.
When she was just six months old, her parents, Eleanor and James were told her condition required open heart surgery, a prospect that left the family 'shell-shocked.'
Her mum Eleanor, now 43, from Orrell Park, told The ECHO: "The size of the hole meant it wasn't going to sort itself out. We were told she needed the operation before she was two and we decided we wanted her to have it sooner rather than later.
"The whole thing was terrifying. It was a whirlwind. You just have t trust the experts that you're in safe hands. We were shell-shocked."
The family are still processing the trauma of Izabella's early health issues.
Eleanor said: "At the time I don't think you can really grasp how difficult it is to go through that as a family."
Izabella's dad James, 45 said: "I think we're still processing it. You deal with it over and over again, it was terrifying and obviously a traumatic thing to let your child go through but we knew it was for the best."
At six months old, Izabella underwent open heart surgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
When asked how they coped as a family Eleanor said: "We talked about it a lot. We allowed each other to be upset."
James said: "You talk about it, you cry we came out the other end as a family."
The operation was a success and on Jan 5 the family celebrated its 10 year anniversary of the life-saving procedure.
Izabella is described as 'wonderful, laid back and happy' by her dad and currently has dreams of becoming a make-up artist.
The couple described the care they have received by Alder Hey during the procedure and regular follow up check-ups as 'incredible.'
Eleanor said: "All the staff were really supportive. They have us a support team that looked after [us as parents] too and made sure we were okay."
During her treatment her parents gave consent for their daughter to take part in research projects to further understand heart conditions. Having raised over £500 for the British Hearth Foundation in 2016, they feel it is important to give back to the research that helped their daughter.
Eleanor said: "It was research that made Izabella's operation possible. Without the people (in research trials) that went before Izabella, all those years and open heart surgery and research, Izabella wouldn't be where she is."
