Dolly Hart is facing her third heart surgery
Dolly Hart is described as a “really funny and happy baby” (Image: Natalie Brown)
A couple were told their baby had “something wrong with her heart” at their 20-week scan. Natalie Brown, 25, and Joe Hart, 26, were told by hospital staff that their unborn baby had a complicated congenital heart condition.
Dolly Hart was born on September 16 2025 at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and her mum, Natalie, described her as a “really funny and happy baby, especially considering everything she’s been through.”
Speaking to the ECHO, Natalie, from Widnes, said: “At my first two scans they couldn’t see her heart properly but everyone thought it was just because of the position she was in. Then at my 20-week scan, I was scanned by a consultant from Alder Hey and he was scanning me for about an hour.
“They took us into another room and explained how they thought she had something wrong with her heart. It was one of those situations you never expect yourself to be in and our world just changed forever.”
Dolly was diagnosed with pulmonary atresia with VSD, which causes a hole in the heart and affects the valve between the heart and the lungs. The couple were put in touch with a cardiac specialist nurse from Alder Hey who supported them through the pregnancy and explained what to expect when Dolly was born.
Natalie said: “When I was 36 weeks pregnant we were taken on a tour around Alder Hey and they showed us all the different rooms and where Dolly would be staying. All the staff were so lovely and supportive which really helped keep us grounded because it was absolutely horrific for us during that period.
“I had a C-section on September 16 and when she was born she was so much better than what everyone had expected her to be. We were warned she might come out blue and really underweight but she was just completely normal.”
Dolly and her mum, Natalie (Image: Natalie Brown )
The family stayed in the hospital for 24 hours before being moved to Alder Hey, where they stayed for three weeks while Dolly had her first heart surgery, which involved putting a stent in to help keep blood flowing to her heart.
“We were home for a month with no issues but then one day when Joe came home from work he noticed she looked really pale. We thought she might have just been a bit cold but when we took off her sleep suit to change her nappy we noticed her legs had turned blue and almost grey.
“We took her straight to Alder Hey and through the night her oxygen levels just kept dropping and she was having trouble breathing on her own. She also wasn’t feeding properly and her CT scan showed the stent had a kink in it and blood clots around it, which meant blood and oxygen couldn’t get to her heart.
“They had to do another bigger surgery and cut her chest open to put a shunt in, so hopefully this is the last surgery she has to have before open heart surgery. She also got sepsis during the operation and it went straight to her bloodstream so she had to go on antibiotics and we were in Alder Hey for about three weeks in total.”
Dolly will be undergoing open heart surgery once she grows a bit bigger, which Natalie said the surgery is expected to happen when she’s around seven months old.
Dolly after her second surgery (Image: Natalie Brown )
Natalie said: “We’re at home now and she’s doing alright but we have to keep a really strong eye on her because obviously it could happen again as she’s not had her full corrective surgery yet.
“She has community nurses who come out to her twice a week and we’re just living day by day at the minute, trying to keep on top of everything to make sure she’s alright.”
Natalie and her friends, Nikki and Georgia, will be taking on a skydive to raise money for Alder Hey Children’s Charity on May 17. A GoFundMe page has been set up for donations.
Natalie said: “I know I can never thank them enough for what they’ve done so I want to raise as much money as I can for the charity. The staff at Alder Hey have been so helpful and supportive, and they’d check up on us constantly as well as Dolly when we spent all those days sat in ICU.
“I’m also absolutely terrified of heights so I wanted to put myself in a situation that scares me. I want to show Dolly when she’s older that her mummy did something terrifying because I know what she’s going through is so frightening. I want her to see that I’m doing everything I can to show her she’s not alone. “