Sunderland family's joy as little Beatrix Archbold gets a new heart

Beatrix Archbold - the two-year-old from Wearside - has had her dream come true. She's got a new heart.

This is the emotional moment that mum Cheryl, from Roker, and dad Terry, told their daughter that she is going to have a heart transplant.

Beatrix replied by holding her cuddly toy and saying she is going to 'be better'.

In recovery after a 10-hour operation

She is now recovering and awake after surgery and Terry said: "We were very anxious while waiting for news. The operation went very well."

He said Beatrix was now in the recovery phase after the 10-hour operation.

The little girl has lived in the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for a year - attached to tubes which act as her ventricles.

Beatrix’s own story unfolded in May last year.

A year on a hospital ward

The Archbold family had returned from a trip to Disney World in Florida and thought Beatrix caught Covid.

She had stopped drinking, had a rash on her neck and the family dialled 111.

After going to A&E, a doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead detected a heart murmur. Tests showed one side of her heart was enlarged and not functioning properly.

She had an operation to fit a line into her body so she could receive medication but she had a cardiac arrest and was saved by expert surgeons at the Freeman Hospital who performed open heart surgery.

She learned to walk and talk in hospital

In the year that followed, she has learned to walk and talk.

She astonished everyone by walking and she did all of that while she was dressed as Wonder Woman a year ago this month!

She said her first words later in 2022 while she was in hospital. “She said snowman and baby,” said dad.

'We feel extremely humbled and thankful'

A long recovery process lies ahead but Terry added: "We feel extremely humbled and thankful."

Terry and Cheryl have campaigned tirelessly for more awareness of organ donation.

Join the NHS Organ Donor Register at www.organdonation.nhs.uk.