Miracle baby with half a heart was resuscitated three times but still keeps on fighting

A brave baby with half a heart who has been resuscitated three times is defying doctors by carrying on fighting.

Jack Stevens was born with only half a heart and has so far undergone four open heart surgeries.

Against all of the odds, he survived five other operations and a stroke.

The 15-month-old has spent more than six months of his life in and out of hospital but is now finally home in Hartlepool with his family.


Proud dad Chris Stevens, 30, said: "He is amazing. He is full of smiles and he is getting stronger.

"He spent the first four and a half months of his life in hospital and another two months since then.

"But to see him, you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with him."

Jack was born with a condition known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, a condition that affects one in every 5,000 babies and meant the left side of his heart did not form.

Just over a year ago, he needed three stages of a process called the Norwood procedure.

It involved surgeons stopping his heart and the function taken over by a heart-lung machine and a shunt being used to help pump blood into the aorta.


He was so small, he needed two temporary procedures to prepare him for the Norwood process because he only weighed 4lbs - half the normal the minimum for the procedure.

He then underwent two more for the actual process and during one surgeons warned Chris and mum Ashton Hodge there was a 30 per cent chance he would not survive.

Jack has already overcome stomach and eating problems and is recovering from a stroke which affected the left side of his body.

He has also had to be resuscitated three times, including once last February when he had a cardiac arrest.

Ashton, 27, said: "He is definitely a little hero when you consider what he has been through. He is a fighter."