THE mum of a brave baby boy born with a rare heart condition believe he is one of just 15 children in the world to have ever battled the illness.

Indy Winfield, who is just four-and-a-half months old, suffers with atresia of the left corony artery and severe regurgitation of his mitrol valve, a condition that is thought to affect just 1 in 475 million people.

On Monday, he will undergo a revasculisation operation that could save his life at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

However, if the operation is not successful he may need a heart transplant.

His mum hopes that by telling Indy’s story other parents facing the unthinkable may consider donating their children’s organs to save other poorly babies.

Mum Hannah Kale, aged 27, of Newtown Road, said: “We found out when he was two months old. He started wheezing but the doctors said he was fine. The next day we took him to the hospital’s out-of-hours doctor. They were giving him some steroids and they did a scan and said his heart was murmering.

“The next thing I knew we were in an ambulance going to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. We were there for a month before they diagnosed it because it is so rare.

“I think there is only 15 cases ever reported in the world. There was another case in Great Ormond Street and the girl needed a transplant.”

Doctors only confirmed what the condition was after putting dye into Indy’s heart. They discovered he does not have a functioning left coronary artery and has a ‘leaky’ heart valve.

At the moment the right side of Indy’s heart is compensating for the left, but doctors do not know how long that will last.

Miss Kale, who recently separated from Indy’s dad Tom Winfield, said: “I said he can have my heart bur the heart must be from a baby of a similar age. The doctors won’t predict how long he can carry on.

“You don’t think anything like this is ever going to happen to you. When we found out it was really surreal.”

Doctors tried to repair the leaky valve but this was unsuccessful and left the youngster with a large scar down his chest.

“After he had the operation they told me and his dad to leave intensive car when they took him off the breathing machine because they didn’t know how he would do, but he did really well,” she said. “He seems to be a strong baby.”

Miss Kale turned to Facebook where she found other parents whose children had suffered similar illnesses, and made contact with the father of the other little girl, now aged 10, who had the same condition as Indy.

“The group is amazing,” said the mum, who is starting her own campaign to encourage organ donation It’s really spurred me on to do something about organ donation for children.”

Miss Kale’s campaign group will ask people to join the register around the city in the next few weeks.

Last week it was revealed that the number of people donating organs after death has risen 50 per cent since 2008.

More than 1,200 people in the UK donated their organs in the last year, leading to 3,100 transplants.

The increase has been largely credited to the network of specialist nurses who approach and support bereaved relatives in hospitals, but with the numbers on the organ donation register remaining unchanged, there are still calls for more to be done.

One suggestion is an system whereby people are deemed to consent to organ donation unless they opt out.

For more information on organ donation, visit organdonation.nhs.uk or call 03001 232323.