'There's nothing anybody can do and you're just left drowning'

Heartbreak for couple whose newborn daughter Lily may have just days to live after being born with rare heart defect

- Thomas Cooper

A YOUNG couple have been left with no choice but to turn off their newborn baby’s life support.

First-time parents Oliver and Emily Luckman had been looking forward to starting the next chapter of their lives.

But an ultrasound on April 3 revealed their unborn daughter had hypoplastic right heart syndrome. The rare condition means that the right side of the heart is underdeveloped, causing life-threatening circulation difficulties.

Normally the condition can be managed - but after little Lily Luckman was born at the Royal Stoke University Hospital on June 4, a followup scan revealed the problem was worse than doctors had initially thought.

Lily is currently staying at the Douglas Macmillan Hospice in Trentham, with her heartbroken parents by her side. They will soon have to switch off her life support and she may have just days left.

Dad Oliver, of Fenton, said: "They found that there was an issue on the left side of her heart too. Those two things combined are extremely rare.