A baby boy, whose parents feared he had only days to live, is now "thriving" after receiving a life-saving heart operation. Macs Green underwent the procedure to fit a Berlin Heart, a type of ventricular assist device, after multiple earlier surgeries.
His parents, Catrin and Dylan, expressed immense relief, stating it was like "having our baby back." Dylan, a town planner, told Newyddion S4C that at one point, "there was talk of end of life." Since being fitted with the Berlin Heart on August 7, Macs has come off sedating drugs and is now "smiling" and "responding" to his parents, a stark contrast to his previous state of "just being a small baby lying on a bed."
Catrin, a solicitor, and Dylan also have two older children, Caio, five, and Gruff. The couple were informed by doctors that it could take years for a suitable donor heart to become available for a transplant.
In the 2024-25 period, 17 Berlin Hearts have been fitted in children across the UK, according to the NHS Blood and Transplant team. The device is an air-driven pump that sits outside the body and assists the heart by pumping blood.