Brit boy, 2, with heart like a 'teabag' gets a brew lease of life

London, August 01 (ANI): Doctors were stunned when they opened up 2-year-old Alistar Essex to repair a hole in his heart. The kid's heart had almost as many holes as a teabag.

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.

"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.

"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.

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. (ANI)