Boy With 'Holey' Heart Lives

2-year-old Alistar Essex did not have just one hole but as many as a teabag, discovered stunned doctors when they opened him up.

But the British boy was healed of the problem because of quick thinking by the surgeons. They wrapped Alistar's heart in a tiny gore-tex jacket to seal the leaks.

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"He's made an amazing recovery," Alistar's mother Stacey said.

Stacey and partner Craig first noticed Alistar's problems in 2006. He stopped feeding and had breathing difficulties.

A scan showed that he had a hole four centimetres wide.

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"I was terrified. I wondered how he could survive," News Of The World quoted Stacey as saying.

When he was 3-months-old, doctors put a rubber band round an artery to reduce blood flow to Alistar's heart while he grew big enough for surgery.

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Doctors at Glenfields Hospital in Leicester treated Alistar in July 2009 to close the biggest hole. Then they discovered his teabag ticker that they lined them with a Gore-Tex material.

"The number of holes in Alistar's heart is very rare. We are delighted he is doing so well," a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

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Source-ANI