Baby boy hospitalised for weeks after catching common cold

At just three weeks old, a baby boy had to undergo open-heart surgery after he was born with a congenital heart defect.

Little Tommy Armitage was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, which affects normal blood flow through the heart. Tommy, who was born December 2019 in Oldham Hospital went to St Marys in Manchester and was then rushed to Alder Hey where he underwent open-heart surgery to insert a stent [tiny mental mesh that works to keep an artery from closing or narrowing] in his heart, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Sadly, just two months later Tommy had to undergo more surgery, and it was discovered that some of his heart was "knackered."

Mum Beckie, a student nurse, said: "He was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot when I was 18 weeks pregnant. We were told he would have an operation between six and nine months and that would be it.

"When he was born it was a lot more complicated. They didn't know how bad it was until he was born. He was born in Oldham, then taken to St Mary's in Manchester but the consultant then spoke to Alder Hey because they won't do the surgery anywhere else. We then went to Alder Hey to have his first surgery.

"He had his stent in January. At the time we thought it might buy him some time and he might not even need his other surgery until he's 12 months but it didn't work.

"He was kept in hospital until March when he had another surgery. There are four major things that are wrong with the heart and when they opened him up they found that his coronary arteries were wrong, and his pulmonary artery was knackered.

"He had to have like a pipe to replace his pulmonary artery which will now need changing every few years as he gets older. He'll be going back to Alder Hey each time for three or four weeks at a