'My son needed open heart surgery at just 10 days old'

Eddison Watts is growing up with a rare congenital defect that affects around one in every 3,600 babies in the UK

- REBECCA WHITTAKER

A mother has recalled the fear she felt when her son was rushed into surgery at just 10 days old – with a tiny heart the size of a walnut.

Eddison Watts, from Norwich, was diagnosed with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot during his mother's pregnancy, where blood would not flow around his body properly.

It is one of the most common heart defects, affecting approximately one in every 3,600 births in the UK, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF). It causes babies to be born with a hole in the heart and a narrowed pulmonary valve, with the main artery of the body growing in the wrong place.

In most cases, children will have surgery to treat Tetralogy of Fallot when they are at least six months old. But Eddison needed lifesaving open-heart surgery when he was under two weeks old, as he had a large hole in his heart.

Eddison's mother, Jo Watts, told The Independent: "It was an unknown and scary time. When they operated on his heart, it was the size of a walnut."