Watch the little super hero who has started to walk - while she carries her artificial heart with her

The little battler is only 19 months old but this mini super hero walked for the first time and she did it in front of nurses and her own family. She even did it while she carried the artificial ventricles which keep her alive.

Beatrix astonished everyone by walking and she did all of that while she was dressed as Wonder Woman!

No-one is more proud of Beatrix than her parents dad Terry, and mum Cheryl who comes from Roker in Sunderland.

Terry told the Echo: “It is mad. She missed the crawling stage and went straight on to taking her first steps. She went for a full walk dressed as Wonder Woman. It took us all by surprise.”

As well as wearing her costume, Beatrix was even wearing a superheroes nappy at the time. Terry added: “On the very first day that we put them on her, she decided to walk. I think they have given her super powers.”

Beatrix only took her first steps four week ago but she has already made amazing progress. She has started walking to the nurses rooms to give them the little notes she has made for them, said her dad.

Then, she gives the staff a wave and moves on to meet more people.

Her face is a picture of happiness as she toddles, but Beatrix’s story has another side to it. She needs a heart transplant.

In May this year, she became ill. Tests showed that 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.

Beatrix now lives at the Freeman. She is attached to tubes which act as her ventricles until she hopefully receives a new heart.

Terry added: “Beatrix is stable at the moment and she is growing. She is putting weight on and getting stronger.”

But she needed surgery to change her artificial ventricles.

Terry explained: “There is a big risk of a stroke through clots forming in the ventricles.”

Terry and Cheryl have spoken to the Echo to raise awareness of organ donations. They know only too well what losing a child is like.

Their daughter Isabel was stillborn four years ago. The couple agreed her heart could be donated for medical research.

Now Beatrix is waiting for a heart herself.

They want Wearside people to start talking more about the sensitive topic of donating a child’s organs.

It is vital that the discussion happens now because it is too upsetting for a parent to consider when they have just lost a child, they say.

Cheryl previously said: “We are not wishing for a heart for Beatrix. We are hoping that, if a family is in that unimaginable position, they make a decision to agree to donating and that they get some healing from it. Donating organs can often save numerous lives.”

For more on organ donation, visit https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/