Toby is youngest heart op patient... at 22 hours old - Mirror.co.uk

Toby Drink had heart surgery when less than a day old

FEW newborn babies can lay claim to being a record breaker but little Toby Drink has already made a big mark.

He has become Britain's youngest open heart surgery patient at just 22 hours old.

The tot has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and had to be given the life-saving op when his health deteriorated dramatically at birth. Now, just 10 weeks after the 12-hour procedure, Toby has returned home.

Mum Sophie, 25, said yesterday: "He's my little fighter. It's great if he's one of the world's youngest but, to me, records don't matter too much.

"What's more important is that he's here – and he's alive."

Nursery nurse Sophie was first told something was wrong after her 20-week scan.

Toby's condition affects one in 5,000 babies and occurs when the left side of the heart fails to form properly.

Sophie said: "To say I was beside myself is an understatement. The doctor said I had three choices: terminate the pregnancy, do nothing and watch him die, or have him and watch him go through all the surgery.

"I was in floods of tears. After talking it through with my mum and dad, Jackie and Mark, I decided I would never be able to live with myself if I didn't have him."

Toby was induced at 39 weeks on September 8, weighing 7lb 1oz.Sophie saw him for 15 min-utes before he was taken for the heart op at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

She said: "I was very scared. But from the first time I went to the heart unit I knew we were in safe hands.

"Still, it was quite distressing to see him covered in so many wires when he was brought out of theatre and stabilised.

"There were so many machines attached to him."

Incredibly, just weeks after surgery, Toby was well enough to go home to Whitby, North Yorks.

Sophie said: "He's a little monkey now. To look at him you'd never know he had gone through such a traumatic start in life.

"Only when you lift up his top and see his chest scar do you realise that he's had such a big operation."

She added: "I never thought I'd be able to hold him in my arms and cuddle him but here I am and it's all down to the Freeman Hospital.

"I can't thank the staff there enough." Toby will need at least two more procedures, one possibly before Christmas to have a cardiac catheter fitted and another when he begins walking.

Before Toby, the youngest person in Britain to have open heart surgery was Rudy Maxwell-Jones at 36 hours old at Birmingham Children's Hospital in July.