Four-year-old flew out to US for life-saving operation

A North East tot is “thriving” after returning from the US where she underwent life-saving heart surgery.

- By Sam Volpe

Little Ivanna Potts had an operation at Boston Children’s Hospital in March, and is now home in Red House, Sunderland and looking forward to a normal life.

And while her family are thrilled - they have raised questions as to how further complications in her case were only discovered when she was about to go under the knife in America.

Ivanna’s story captured the hearts of people around the North East late last year, with well over £250,000 raised to go towards her surgery and travel.

Dad Jack said they had, for years “put our trust in the system”.

He said: “From the moment she entered the world, we were told her condition was rare, severe and complicated. We accepted that there would be operations, setbacks and uncertainty.

“What we never expected was that one day we would be left feeling that we had run out of answers. As parents, all we ever wanted was clarity. We weren't asking for guarantees.

“We simply wanted to know that every possible option had been considered before anyone decided there was nothing more that could be done.”

He said that years of appointments left them with the “weight of unanswered questions”.