Alaric’s parents were told that as a baby, his heart could cope, but as he moved into toddlerhood and childhood, any physical exertion would become more difficult.
“Because of his heart defects being so complex, at some point, he would have gone into heart failure,” his mother said.
He underwent surgery with his parents knowing he might not survive the operation.
Alaric was in theatre for seven hours to correct the VSD, a narrow pulmonary artery, a thickened right ventricle wall and a leak in his right valve.
His father said: “It didn’t really hit home to me until I saw him in the little scrubs”.
Amara added: “There were complications. They said to us he had to be put back on bypass and stabilised a couple of times.”
The family remained at the hospital for 16 days while he recovered.