By Pamela McGowan

Last updated 05:37, Friday, 25 July 2008

JUST three weeks ago the parents of little Theo Giles Davies were watching their baby fight for his life, knowing that if he didn’t get a new heart he would not survive.

Vigil: Ryan Davies and Rebecca Giles at Theo’s bedside in hospital at Newcastle

But the youngster, who turned one last week, has battled hard to stay alive and now, against all the odds, his family have been told he no longer needs an urgent transplant.

Parents Ryan Davies and Rebecca Giles may now be able to take him home within weeks.

This news, described by his family as nothing short of a miracle, follows a series of last-ditch operations to give the Keswick tot more time.

Theo suffers from hyperplastic left heart syndrome, which means he was born with half a heart.

He has been in the intensive care unit at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital for weeks, waiting for a heart to become available.

At one point doctors were forced to consider turning off his life support machine.

But Theo surprised everyone by starting to breathe on his own again, enabling him to come off the ventilator.

Now, following an operation to improve his lung pressure and another to improve the blood flow through his heart, Theo has taken vital steps on the road to recovery.

Mum Rebecca said: “We can’t believe it. It seems like a miracle.”

Theo will have to have an operation in six weeks, as part of a treatment plan designed to delay his need for a transplant for years.