Beautiful baby Katy May can finally breathe easily after German doctors performed a surgical miracle to save her from a life-threatening heart condition.

Helping kids George Clooney Hollywood star set for charity gala in Berlin One of Hollywood’s biggest stars is set to make the thirtieth birthday of BILD’s charity organisation ‘Ein Herz für Kinder’ a very special one.

The 16-week-old tot was born with a deadly disease – her four-centimetre heart had turned 90 degrees in her body, causing her artery to shut off her windpipe. Katy May would have died from painful suffocation had the doctors not come to the rescue.

Her mother, 19-year-old hairdresser Sabine Koehler, said: “No one knew that her life was hanging from a thread from the very first day.”

With only a few surgeons in the whole world having the skills to save the little baby, Katy May was in need of a miracle. Luckily for her, top heart specialist Professor Dr. Robert Cesnjevar (43) agreed to treat her at the University Hospital Erlangen in Bavaria.

The doctors diagnosed the rare heart problem and decided on an extremely complicated and dangerous operation, without which Katy May was certain to die.

Each year only four or five such operations are undertaken, and most of the children don’t survive.

For four long hours Katy May was in grave danger, and the surgeons were not sure whether she would pull through.

Professor Cesnjevar explained the process: “We cut the artery away from the main artery, and attached it with 20 stitches two centimetres further up.”

Then the surgeon split the eight-millimetre windpipe with his scalpel: “I cut open the side of the pressured area and then sewed it back together.”

After a few days doctors broke the news to the anxious parents. Their prayers were answered - Katy May is alive and well!

A baby's life-saving op The computerised tomography shows the area of the windpipe that was pressured by the artery. Katy May could only draw in air through a two-millimetre hole, and was threatened with suffocation. 1 / 1 vorheriges Element nächstes Element

Sabine was overjoyed. She told BILD: “I am so grateful. My little one had to go through so much.”

But whether Katy May will be able to lead a completely normal life is yet uncertain. “I hope that she will soon be able to do without the medicine. I am so proud of her!”