Brave South Shields tot born with half a heart could face agonising wait for donor organ

Two-year-old Sophie Maxwell has spent the last two weeks battling a serious heart condition in hospital after taking ill on Christmas Day.

Doctors at the Children’s Heart Unit at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital are working to improve her heart function so that she can have surgery.

But if her condition does not improve, she will be added to the transplant list – and face an agonising wait for a donor heart.

Sophie’s mum, Kerryanne Maxwell said: “They’re trying to improve her heart function but there’s been no change so far and she’s been on them for two weeks.

“If it comes to her needing a transplant, it’s terrifying. We’d basically be waiting for someone else’s child to die and that’s just horrible.

“There’s a little boy on the ward who has been waiting for a heart since November 2014 too, so that just shows how long Sophie could have to wait.”

The youngster, who lives with her mother, father, Ian, and big brothers Nathan, five, and Joshua Tansey, nine, in Whiteleas Way, South Shields, was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

The rare congenital heart condition leaves the left heart ventricle severely underdeveloped.

At just five days old, Sophie had her first open heart surgery and spent the first three weeks of her life on a ventilator. She was five weeks old before she could return home.

The brave tot had a second open heart surgery just eight months into her life and doctors said she’d need another one, possibly when she was three or four years old.

But her parents began to worry on December 20 when her face swelled up.

Mrs Maxwell, 29, said: “Her face was really puffy when she got up from a nap so we first took her to South Tyneside District Hospital.

“She was then taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle and they put her on a nebuliser and oxygen. A cardiologist from the Freeman came to see her and said he wanted her transferred over there straight away.”

Sophie returned home on December 23, but took another turn for the worse on Christmas Day.

Kerryanne said: “She was just really lethargic. She didn’t even want to open her Christmas presents.

“I used the equipment we’ve got at home to check her heart rate. It was really high and there was very little oxygen in her blood, so I called the Freeman and they said to ring for an ambulance immediately.”

Sophie has been in hospital ever since and is being given drugs which the family hope will improve her heart function enough so she can have her third open heart surgery.

But there are no signs of improvement yet.

Mrs Maxwell added: “They’re trying to wean her off the drugs in the hope that her heart function will begin to improve.”

Mr Maxwell, 39, who works for nPower, added: “It’s been a hard time for us. Joshua and Nathan have been staying with family members. We’ve hardly seen them and they’ve hardly seen Sophie.

“They came to see Sophie at the hospital the other day and Joshua said it was the first time he’d seen her since Christmas Day.”