Toddler’s heart is STAPLED to her tiny rib cage in cutting-edge op to stop it moving in her chest
Gabriella Stearne was born without a left lung, and with two rare heart conditions
A toddler has had her heart stapled to her ribs during a pioneering op to stop her organs moving around her body.
Gabriella Stearne was born with not one but two rare conditions.
At birth she was missing a left lung - a condition that can result in her heart shifting out of place, threatening her health.
But, medics at Great Ormond Street Hospital stepped in operating to secure Gabriella's heart to her rib cage, and fitting her with a prosthetic lung.
Doctors now hope the 15-month-old will be able to live an active life, in spite of her needing operations every six months as she grows up.
Full-time mum Amie Jarvis, 27, said: "Even five years ago they wouldn't have been able to do what they have done for her.
"It's because all the things she has are rare by themselves but together they're unheard of.
"I don't want to say she has been a bit of a guinea pig but she has because of all the different things that she has had done.
"It's amazing what the doctors and nurses have done and we're forever indebted to them."
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Amie and dad Tom Stearne, 29, learned the youngster would be born with defects five months into the pregnancy after a scan showed abnormalities.
Gabriella was born on May 8, 2015, and found to have genetic conditions Scimitar Syndrome and Tetralogy Of Fallot.
Both these rare heart conditions severely affect the heart's ability to function and their affects are more than doubled when combined.
Being born without a lung also severely impeded her and also allowed her other organs to move about in her body.
To stay alive, Gabriella had to be constantly ventilated via a tube inserted into her windpipe, after also being diagnosed with bronchomalacia.
Scimitar syndrome - a rare, inherited heart disorder
Scimitar syndrome is a rare congenital disorder - meaning it is inherited and present from birth.
It is extremely rare, with an incidence rate of around one to three cases per 100,000 of the population.
The condition can cause a person's heart to be on the right side of the body as opposed to the left, and the lungs, and key arteries to be underdeveloped.
Symptoms include fatigue, recurrent respiratory infections and in serious cases cardiac failure which can make the condition deadly, especially in infants.
This is caused by weak cartilage in the walls of the bronchial tubes which means they need to be supported to stay open.
Originally doctors believed Gabriella could be supported from her home in Wisbech, Cambs.
But by September last year the toddler's health deteriorated when at four-months-old, Gabriella began having seizures which stopped her breathing.
She had her heart repaired and stapled to her chest bones so it doesn’t move about. She has also had a prosthetic lung inserted
Amie Jarvis
She was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, where medics decided the only option was to perform the series of operations to save her life.
She was immediately transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital for cutting-edge treatment.
Amie said: "A specialist team from Great Ormond Street came and put her in an induced coma and took her back to the London hospital.
"She was in Cardiac Intensive Care Unit where she has had numerous operations.
"She had her heart repaired and stapled to her chest bones so it doesn't move about.
"She has also had a prosthetic lung inserted. This is to support her as she grows and to stop her other organs moving around."
A condition incorporating four different heart defects
Tetralogy of Fallot is a condition that incorporates four different heart defects.
A narrowing of the pulmonary valve means it is difficult for blood to get from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery.
It is also characterised by a small hole between the ventricles, meaning blood can leak from one side of the heart to the other.
In addition the right ventricle becomes thickened and the aorta, which should only carry red, oxygenated blood around the body lies over the hole in the ventricles, allowing the right ventricle to pump some deoxygenated blood into it.
Since being in Great Ormond Street since last September, Gabriella has steadily progressed, thanks to the cutting-edge treatment.
Such is her progress in her condition that she was finally allowed to return to the family home she shares with her two older sisters, Alexis, eight and Imogen, three, on Monday.
Her father Tom, a lorry driver, said: "It is lovely. After a year in Great Ormond Street it is brilliant to be finally going home."
The family are now desperately trying to raise £5,000 to buy a people carrier needed to transport Gabriella and all her medical equipment.
To help the Stearnes visit their .