Preborn with rare heart defect now ‘happy and healthy’ baby boy

A preborn baby diagnosed with a serious heart condition during a 20-week scan is now going “from strength to strength”.

During prenatal screening, doctors told mum Stacey that her baby had transposition of the great arteries, a serious abnormality of the heart that affects blood flow.

Twelve days after his birth at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol, Frankie underwent open heart surgery to correct the defect and was discharged from hospital twenty days later.

Hope

Stacey said that immediately following the unexpected diagnosis, “the world stopped, everything felt surreal and slow”.

She added: “I couldn’t take any information on, you panic, you don’t think it’s going to happen to you.”

However, Frankie’s surgery as a newborn was successful, and five months on Stacey reports that he is a “happy and healthy” little boy.

Reflecting on her experience, Stacey confessed to being really scared at times, but added: “It’s easy to fall down an unhelpful hole. I want there to be hope for other parents, to encourage people to talk about it.”

Disability abortions

Options suggested by Public Health England for parents of babies deemed to have congenital heart disease at their 20-week scan include “continuing with your pregnancy or ending your pregnancy”.

In 2022, the most recent statistics available, 567 babies were aborted in England and Wales because of suspected malformation of the cardiovascular system.

In total, 3,124 babies deemed to have a disability were aborted during 2022, including 760 with Down’s syndrome and 46 with cleft palate and lip.