A YOUNG couple are celebrating their 'miracle' baby's first Christmas after he battled multiple cardiac conditions including a hole in his heart.

This time last year Teresa Hawes and Mark Jones, of Mount Wise, feared their unborn son would not survive the year.

Doctors had told pregnant Teresa her child could need emergency surgery within days of birth, and it was unlikely he would live to see his fifth birthday.

Now they are over the moon to be spending Christmas with 10-month-old Rhys, their only child, who has defied all expectations.

Teresa, 21, said: "I bought him a Christmas present this time last year – a little learning table. At the time, I didn't know whether he'd be here to open it.

"I'm so excited he's actually around to play with it. I don't know what I'd do if he wasn't.

"Rhys has made us realise that even in the worst situation there's a glimmer of hope.

"We call him our miracle child because his heart got a little better, when the doctors never thought it would."

Doctors first found Rhys had heart problems during her 20-week scan at Derriford Hospital.

She and Mark, 26, who works for city waste company Viridor, had just found out they were having a son.

Teresa said: "We sat in the waiting room, laughing and thinking of names for our little boy.

"We were so happy, unaware of what was to come.

"We went back into the room, where the doctor looked at our baby on the machine.

"Then he broke the news that turned our world upside-down.

"We went home, not knowing what to do or say. We couldn't even tell people without crying."

Following weeks of tests and consultation, shortly before Christmas, a heart specialist in Bristol diagnosed that Rhys' heart had a missing valve.

The consultant said Rhys could need three or more open-heart operations, the first one within a few days of birth.

In January, when Teresa was 31 weeks pregnant, the consultant changed the diagnosis, saying Rhys had tetralogy of Fallot, a serious and complex heart defect involving a hole between the two ventricles and a narrowing of vessels carrying blood to the lungs.

Teresa was advised to give birth at Bristol Maternity Hospital where expert help would be available.

On February 20, a week before she was due to be induced, Teresa's waters broke. At midnight she was taken to Bristol by ambulance.

Rhys was born prematurely at 8.19pm the following day, weighing just 5lb 10oz.

He was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit and, after 15 hours, moved to Bristol Children's Hospital so he could be monitored, but was home five days later after doctors confirmed his condition was not as severe as had been feared.

Teresa and Mark said Rhys had a hole in the wall between the atria and other heart malformations and underwent regular check-ups with specialists in Derriford and Bristol.

Teresa said he might need a heart operation before he was five years old, depending on his progress, adding: "To look at him you, can't tell he has a heart condition. He acts like any other child.

"We love him so much and are so excited about Christmas."