Ava’s successful heart op

Becky Bailey and daughter Ava Bailey

A young girl has successfully undergone a hole-in-the-heart operation after a Midlands weekly newspaper launched an appeal to help her. Last month (June), the Hereford Times launched a £25,000 bid to help Ava Bailey, whose parents had been informed that their nine year old daughter needed open-heart surgery.

But following the campaign’s launch, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital intervened to allow Ava to have the surgery on the NHS.

Ava’s parents, Richard and Becky Bailey, had originally been told that should expect to wait 18 months for the four-hour long operation to repair a 27 millimetre hole in Ava’s heart. Then the NHS contacted them two weeks ago to say the procedure could go ahead.

In a statement, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital told the newspaper: “We always try to get children seen as quickly as possible and on some occasions we have more spaces become available for appointments and surgeries. This was the case with Ava’s open-heart surgery. The nine-year-old was on our surgical waiting list.”

Hereford Times editor John Wilson told the Press Club: “Newspapers have their critics. But I have always been a believer that they are overwhelmingly a force for good in our society.

“We have no way of knowing if our appeal directly influenced the hospital's prioritisation of Ava. But it does not matter. A nine-year-old girl will soon be running and dancing with her friends, and that should be celebrated regardless of how it was achieved.”

Mrs Bailey, who said the operation was needed so that Ava could lead a fuller life, commented: “From the cardiologist’s perspective it was successful. All the staff have been incredibly caring towards all of us, and I can’t praise them highly enough.”

Donations raised during the campaign (which would have allowed Ava to go privately) are to be refunded through gofundme.com

Pictured: Ava with her mother, Becky