Xmas gift that came six weeks early

The first Christmas with a new baby is always special. But the parents of tiny Louis Pockett are counting themselves twice blessed to have their son home for the festive season after he was born six weeks premature and survived life-saving heart surgery.

For the first few weeks after their son was born Frances Reily and Robert Pockett faced an agonising wait to see if Louis would survive.They could not even pick him up for a cuddle.

Louis, who was due on Christmas Day, arrived six weeks early, weighing 4lb 10oz. He spent the first two weeks of his life in an incubator at the special care baby unit at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford.

But it soon became clear that he was seriously ill.

His mother, Frances, said: "He was getting weaker and not thriving, so the doctors decided he should go to Great Ormond Street." Within hours of arriving at the children's hospital Louis was diagnosed with an extremely rare heart defect. Open heart surgery was the only option and the operation went ahead the next day.

Louis was suffering from a condition known as anomalous pulmonary venous connection. It meant that blood which had passed through his lungs in order to provide oxygen to the rest of his body was not getting there. Because of defects in Louis's blood vessels, instead of the oxygenated blood being taken to the right side of his body, it was going straight back to his left side.

The only reason he had survived was owing to another heart defect. A small hole in his heart was allowing some of the oxygenated blood to get to the right side.

Around eight in every 1,000 babies have some kind of heart abnormality, but the condition affecting Louis is found in only about one per cent of those eight. Surgeons from Great Ormond Street spent about four hours in theatre carrying out an intricate operation to correct the way Louis's heart was working. The vessel which should have taken oxygenated blood to the heart was redirected and the hole in the heart stitched up.

The operation was a success but Louis still needed to spend two weeks in intensive care on a life support machine.

Frances, 38, said: "He made a very slow recovery and there were quite a few complications from the surgery. When you operate on such a tiny baby things get bruised and broken.

"There were times when we thought he wouldn't pull through. While he was in intensive care, we were not sure whether he was going to be able to breathe for himself.

"We couldn't pick him up and give him a cuddle, which was hard, but at the same time we didn't want to do anything which might hinder his progress."

Frances and Robert, 35, faced an agonising wait while Louis slowly built up his strength.

Ms Reily added: "All of the staff at Great Ormond Street were absolutely fantastic. All the time Louis was in intensive care, we had our own room."

In the week running up to Christmas Louis started to make progress. He was taken off the ventilator, transferred from intensive care and got his first real cuddles from his parents.

They were delighted when doctors said Louis was doing so well he would be home for Christmas. The family went back to their home in Godalming on Thursday and plan to spend the festive season showing off their son to friends and family.

Ms Reily said: "He is absolutely fine now he is home. I thought after such a long time in a busy hospital, he might find it hard to adjust to the quiet of the house, but he is really peaceful.

"Because he was premature, he is small and his development is behind, but he is absolutely fine. He is feeding normally and is starting to gain weight. He is back to just over his birth weight."

She added: "Louis will make things really special for us this year."