Heart-condition baby Alfie Oliver from Clifton, York saved by Viagra (From York Press)

Heart-condition baby Alfie Oliver from Clifton, York saved by Viagra

9:28am Tuesday 30th June 2009

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DOCTORS told them to expect the worst, but the parents of a baby boy with a rare heart condition are now preparing to celebrate his first birthday – thanks to Viagra.

Soon after Alfie Oliver was born on July 14 last year, he underwent a series of gruelling heart operations and, at one point, looked unlikely to pull through. However, thanks to staff at Leeds General Infirmary, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the anti-impotence drug Viagra, Alfie will soon be celebrating his birthday with parents Rob, 28, and Tracey, 26, at their home in Clifton, York.

Mrs Oliver said: “When they sat us down and said it was Viagra, we thought ‘oh my goodness’. It’s such a strange thing for a baby to be on, but it has literally saved his life.”

Shortly after birth, Alfie was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries which meant the position of his aorta and pulmonary artery were reversed. Although Viagra is now famous for its anti-impotence qualities, Alfie benefits from its original purpose, to open up blood vessels and improve circulation. Recalling Alfie’s first days, she said: “He had a procedure the night he was born just to stabilise him because he was critically ill.”

Alfie was given an operation 16 days later to repair the mix-up in his heart but, despite showing promising signs, he was soon back in hospital.

Mrs Oliver said: “He came home for six weeks and was doing incredibly well. But when we took him for a routine appointment with a cardiologist they found the pressure in his lungs was too high.

“We went back to Leeds and they carried out a procedure called a cardiac catheterisation, but during that there was complications and he went into cardiac arrest.” Despite making it through the operation, Alfie was diagnosed with a rare condition called pulmonary hypertension – a narrowing of the blood vessels around the lungs which causes an increase in blood pressure.

According to the charity Pulmonary Hypertension Association UK, the condition often goes undiagnosed because of symptoms similar to asthma.

Alfie spent the next two weeks in intensive care and at one point his parents were put in touch with a children’s hospice. Last October, they were told he had between two weeks and two months to live, but little Alfie defied the odds.

Help came after a team from London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital heard of his plight and paid a visit to their Leeds colleagues.

Mrs Oliver said: “Between them they decided to treat him with Viagra, which opened up the blood vessels and allowed the blood to circulate better.”

Alfie still faces more medication to complement and, hopefully, replace the Viagra, which he takes six times a day.

He is still seen regularly by medical experts from Great Ormond Street and Leeds. Thankfully, because of his young age, Alfie does not experience the renowned side effects of the drug.

“His first year has been very traumatic,” said Mrs Oliver. “But we just treat him as our brave little fighter and we are incredibly happy that he has got to his first birthday.”

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