A BABY boy battling a heart condition was allowed to come home for the first time to celebrate Mothers’ Day nearly five months after being born.

Parents Leah and Jack Riley were told during pregnancy their first born Freddie had a problem with his heart.

But problems were made worse when he was born at 32 weeks – two months premature.

Mrs Riley had to be rushed in a blue light ambulance to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, which specialises in early baby arrivals, and Freddie arrived on November 18 last year.

After tests at the Royal Brompton specialist heart hospital, doctors diagnosed Freddie with pulmonary atresia with a ventricular septal defect – meaning he had a hole in his heart and oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood were being mixed together.

Experts decided he needed surgery to fix the problem, but he was too small so he had to spend six weeks at Colchester General Hospital where he was fed expressed bread milk supplemented with extra calories to help him gain weight.

Once he had put on enough weight, he went back to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.

Doctors attempted a cardiac cathertisation – a procedure where surgeons attempted to fit a stent in his heart, by going through the groin - but even the smallest size was unsuitable.

On January 24 he underwent open heart surgery which took nine hours, more than double the expected time.

But Freddie has now recovered enough that he could do home to Saffron Way, Tiptree.

Mrs Riley said she was delighted he made it home for her first Mothers’ Day.

She said: “It has been more than four months of being in hospitals without him ever being allowed to come home even for one night.

“But the whole time I have never gone a day without seeing him.

“We have been trying to stay really positive and have tried to keep going.

“There were a few times when we thought we might be able to go home but every time there was light at the end of the tunnel it seemed to disappear.

“When we were in the hospitals we saw lots of children coming and going where as we always seemed to be there, you learn there is always someone worse off than you.”

Now he is home, Freddie is taking aspirin to thin his blood and is likely to need another open heart operation before he is one year old.

Mrs Riley said: “We have nicknamed him Freddie the Fighter because of how brave he has been.

“He is amazing but it has been such a massive rollercoaster for all of us.

“All the surgeons have been fantastic and the technology they have now is unbelievable.

“Just 20 years ago he probably would not have survived.

“I didn’t drink or smoke, it is something which can just happen to anyone.”