Baby boy reunited with the medics who saved his life

Harry Carter, now one, was rushed to the hospital with shallow breathing and what turned out to be a serious heart condition.

Doctors drilled into his shins and injected into his bone marrow to help treat and investigate the problem and, for six hours, medics battled to keep him alive.

Harry’s mother Hayley Carter, 32, said he was eventually diagnosed with a co-arctation of the aorta, where the main artery from the heart is not formed properly.

She said: “He was severely hypothermic by this point.

“His heart readings were all over the place and, most importantly, the acid levels and toxins in his blood were off the scale because his filtering organs, including his kidney and liver, were shutting down due to lack of blood supply.

“They took a blood gas reading pretty much every 20 minutes or so and I still remember when the reading started to drop, and three or four doctors punched the air in delight.”

Harry was taken to Leeds Cardiac Centre by Embrace Ambulance for heart surgery, where he spent two weeks in hospital.

He has since made a “great recovery”, but his family said they always wanted to revisit the doctors who saved his life.

Consultant Dr Chris FitzSimmons, who was on duty the night Harry was brought in, said the baby’s treatment was “a credit to all involved.”