PA/Model release
A tiny baby girl has become the youngest person in the world to have open heart surgery.
Little Jasmine Carr was just 17 and a half hours old when surgeons carefully pieced together her heart after she was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Jasmine is now out of intensive care and her parents, Jo and James, are hopeful she will be allowed to leave hospital and go home to Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, by April.
Her 27-year-old mum told The Mirror: "Being told there is little chance of your daughter living is the most heartbreaking thing you can hear as a mother. But thanks to some amazingly fast operating she has a future."
Jasmine's heart had failed to form properly in the womb. Her parents were told the devastating news at their 20-week scan. They were left with three options: terminating the pregnancy, have the baby yet know she would die shortly after birth, or have her operated on just hours after delivery.
Jo said their decision was "a no brainer - we had to go for the operation".
Jasmine was born on September 27 weighing 5lb 13oz after Jo was induced at 37 weeks.
She and her husband James, 29, were allowed to cuddle Jasmine for 10 minutes before doctors rushed her to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital for surgery.
Jo, who has two other children, recalls the doctors telling her that her daughter had just a 15 per cent chance of surviving the op, and that is could be the last time they saw her. She said that waiting for the operation to be over was the "most distressing few hours of my life".
Jasmine suffered a cardiac arrest the day after her surgery and spent almost three months in intensive care before being transferred to the high dependency ward just before Christmas.
Doctors are now confident she will make a full recovery after further surgery to widen an artery last week.
James - who gave up his job when Jasmine was diagnosed with the condition - said: "Being able to hold our baby is just incredible. Fingers crossed she'll be home by April. And we're planning a little homecoming party when she arrives."
The previous youngest heart surgery patient was Rudy Maxwell-Jones, who underwent an operation at 36 hours old at Birmingham Children's Hospital last July.
What an amazing story!
We hope Jasmine gets to go home very soon.