Baby Ava on the road to recovery after op

Now her parents are organising a charity football match to thank the medical team who performed the successful open heart surgery.

First birthdays are always a milestone but for proud parents Tony Meredith and Rebecca Duffield, the celebration on July 28 will mark a significant achievement in their long and traumatic journey to nurture their adorable baby back to full health.

Ava was born with a rare heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital defect that is present at birth and changes the normal flow of blood through the heart.

For baby Ava, it caused a life-threatening lack of oxygen flow that resulted in her occasionally turning blue, which was terrifying for her family to witness.

Rebecca, who lives in Bettws Cedewain, near Newtown, said: "We were told Ava had a heart murmur after she was born at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

"We thought it was the end of the world. The hole was at the bottom of her heart."

She added: "Tetralogy of Fallot affects one in 7,000 to 8,000 babies – and apparently the condition can be picked up in pregnancy at some large hospitals where staff are trained to find it.

"But it wasn't picked up in my 20-week scan in our rural area."

Rebecca said: "We were terrified to be told the gap could occasionally starve her body of oxygen and were told what to do if that happened. They said she would need surgery later in life.

"I started to think, 'have I done something wrong?' 'have we given it to her?'.

"Before Ava's operation at Birmingham Children's Hospital, she had turned blue about four times and she did it for a fifth time when we were in the hospital waiting for her operation.

"It would happen if she got too excited and she couldn't cry for long. It resulted in her young life being restricted.

"I couldn't let her out of my sight for fear that when it happened other people wouldn't know what to do with the beta blockers that were needed to relax it.

"We live in a small rural village where most of the children are healthy, so we were in total shock when we were first told that Ava would need open-heart surgery."

Rebecca recalls the agonising wait on January 7, when Ava was taken down to theatre at 3pm at Birmingham Children's Hospital were she was in surgery for six hours. She later spent 24 hours in intensive care where Rebecca said staff were amazing and gave incredible care.

She said: "The staff gave us the constant reassurance that we needed and Ava was out of intensive care in just 24 hours after major surgery and put on a high dependency ward. There was a nurse who didn't leave her side and there were always two cardiac nurses on hand to talk to.

"Ava was doing really well until one Saturday afternoon, when I had fallen asleep and Tony said she was having difficulty breathing; it was because fluid had collected around her heart and lungs after surgery so she needed it drained and recovered.

"They literally saved our family and, most importantly, saved our little girl.

"Ava's life would have been severely impaired if she had not had the operation and she would have died."

Rebecca said that Ava is just like any other 10-month-old now – full of fun as learning about the world.

"To see Ava now is amazing," she said.

"She is just like any other normal 10-month-old and is coming on leaps and bounds, apart from crawling because her scar is holding her back a bit.

"But as I talk she is playing with her dad's phone and watching the television.

"Ava still needs regular check-ups at Birmingham but we are getting there now. We gave them chocolates and a card to say thank you at the time but we wanted to raise funds for them too so we are organising a football fundraiser."

She added: "We are planning to go out for a family meal on Ava's birthday and to make a book of her life for her, for when she is older."

Tony Meredith is well known in the club football circuit. An eleven-a-side football fundraiser for Birmingham Children's Hospital between Team Ava and Team Noah, the son of another well-known local footballer Steve Hole and his partner Jodi, will take place at Latham Park, Newtown, on August 6 from 5pm. There will be a hog roast, tombola and raffle, plus music and stalls. Adults £5, children free.

• You can support the fundraising efforts through justgiving.com/Becca-Duffield or email Duffield_rebecca@yahoo.com