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Alice Morby, 30, who is a support worker, gave birth to baby George on Thursday, November 20, but knew something was wrong straight away.
Alice said Portsmouth hospital staff immediately noticed he was grey instead of pink, and she and partner Danny Cussen, 36, spent anxious hours waiting for an explanation.
She said: “They pressed the emergency buzzer, and we didn’t see him for five hours.
“I was just thinking ‘where’s my baby?’”
They were then told that he was born with transposition of the great arteries, meaning that oxygen was not being carried around his body.
Baby George was then taken to Southampton General Hospital the same day he was born, where doctors explained to the parents that he had a heart condition that required open heart surgery.
Alice, said: “It was all a big shock, it was like the end of the world.”
“We were so worried, but we accepted it quickly.
“There was no point getting so upset and distraught when we needed to be strong for him.”
Alice and Danny, who live in Fareham, said they were able to stay at Ronald McDonald House in Southampton so they could be near their son while he was in hospital.
George had the surgery just a week later, and although he suffered through jaundice and issues with breathing, he was soon on the mend.
Alice said: “We were just so proud of his progression and how strong he was.”
George’s parents got to take him home for the first time on Sunday, December 7, 2025, 17 days after he was born.
Alice said: “There was so much happiness the first time we took him home, it was like that first excitement you get for Christmas or holidays, for something you haven’t done before.”
George has since been progressing well, and his mum says he has progressed just like a normal baby.
She said: “I still have that but of worry, but I think all new parents do, I worry about if he’s breathing at night.”
George is one of the babies featured in the Daily Echo’s ‘Babies born in 2025’ souvenir supplement out on Thursday, February 19.
