A FAMILY have described one of the worst and best weeks of their lives as they suffered the terrifying ordeal of seeing their newborn diagnosed with a critical heart condition before an operation meant he was soon back in their arms again.

The Chapelford parents and grandparents of four-week-old tiny tot Archie have been praising Warrington Hospital, Alder Hey and the North West and North Wales Transport Service (NWTS), who stabilised and transferred the poorly youngster, for their efforts and said words cannot explain how grateful they are.

Mum Becci Shaw, aged 29, and dad Tom Heath, aged 31, said it now feels like a blur but have got lots of pictures to remind the four-week-old tot when he is older of how lucky he is.

Becci added: “We first knew something was wrong when Archie was struggling to breathe and thrown up yellow sick.

“We started to panic and took him straight to Warrington Hospital.

“He was checked over and sent home but then it happened again.

“Nurses were trying to insert a tube to help him feed when he turned blue and everything went awful from there.”

Staff worked to save his life after Archie stopped breathing a number of times before he was stabilised and transferred to Alder Hey where they found a problem called coarctation of the aorta.

It meant oxygen was no longer being pumped around his blood but an operation the next day soon meant Archie was back in his mum’s arms.

She added: “It’s unbelievable to think now he was having open heart surgery this time last week.

“At one point I honestly thought my son had died and I will never be able to thank all the people that saved him enough.

“It’s something you never think would happen to your baby and we hadn’t even heard of the NWTS team before who stabilised Archie after being called out to five emergencies at 2am and managed to work a miracle.

“Hopefully now there shouldn’t be any other problems and he can grow up running around and doing normal things.”