'Doctors told me to terminate my pregnancy twice - but look at my son now'

A 16-week scan revealed that Jess's baby was at high risk of Down's syndrome and there might be defect with his heart, but after two miscarriages Jess was prepared to give her child a chance

Every birthday, little Oliver Seagrove’s parents take a special photo of their son, sitting on his favourite tree in their local park. The latest portrait marks another landmark they thought Oliver might never reach, after he was born with only half a heart.

His mum, nurse Jess, 29, tells the Mirror: “His survival has been so incredible that we wanted to mark each year to show what an achievement it is.”

Jess and husband Ashley, 30, were thrilled when they found out she was pregnant. But an abnormality at the 12-week scan led to tests revealing their baby was at high risk of Down’s syndrome, plus the possibility something was wrong with his heart.

Jess says: “It was devastating. We were offered further investigations but I’d already suffered two miscarriages, so we declined. Then we were offered a termination but we refused. We wanted to give our baby a chance.”

The 16-week scan revealed Oliver had hypoplastic right heart syndrome, meaning the right side doesn’t develop properly. Told 48 hours later that his condition was too complex for surgery, Jess adds: “I heard this howl coming from far away and didn’t realise at first that it was coming from me. To be told there was nothing that could be done was unbearable.”

Oliver was born at Birmingham Women’s Hospital on September 8, 2016, weighing 5lbs 12oz, but his troubles were far from over. “Doctors said they would put a stent in at six days old to help the blood flow around his half heart,” says Jess. “Luckily that went OK.” A further op followed at four months, when doctors tried to re-plumb his half heart to help it work.

But Oliver suffered a build up of fluid around it and for 48 hours his life hung in the balance, with it later being revealed he had suffered a stroke. “It was such a scary time. Doctors said if it had been left for another two days, he wouldn’t have made it,” says Jess, who lives in Burton-on-Trent, Staffs, with Ashley, Oliver and his sister Elsie, three.

The relieved mum says: “We will carry on taking a photo on his birthday each year and we put them up around the house so we can see every day how far he has come. Doctors wanted to terminate my pregnancy twice but look at Oliver now.”