'We really thought we had lost her'

AS IVY Sandells skipped into the school gates it was a moment her parents thought they would never see.

- By Lucy Laing

As a baby she “died” for 45 minutes after her heart stopped, before she made a remarkable recovery.

Looking at her now, smiling in her school uniform, it is hard to believe that doctors were seconds away from giving up on her.

Mother Bernice, 32, lives in Chippenham, Wiltshire, with husband Ben, 38, who runs his own groundworks business.

She said: “It seems like a miracle that Ivy was able to start school a few weeks ago.

“When her heart stopped for so long, we thought that we were going to lose her.

“Now to look at her, you would never know what she has been through. She was so excited to start school for the first time, and she loves riding her pony, Sooty. She’s even won competitions on him in the show ring.”

The couple, who also have son Arthur, eight, and daughter Olivia, two, were unaware Ivy had been born with a heart condition, as it was not picked up in pregnancy scans.