Baby's heart surgery cancelled five times by Leeds hospital

A baby born with a hole in her heart had to wait four months for the defect to be repaired after a major operation was cancelled five times.

Evelyn Johnston-Smith's condition was spotted at her mother's 20-week scan.

Shortly after Evelyn was born doctors fitted a pulmonary band and said the baby girl would need a second operation within a year.

The follow-up operation was scheduled for September 2017 and a deadline of mid-November was set for it to take place.

However, the procedure was cancelled five times due to staff shortages, lack of beds and an emergency operation.

Leanne Smith, 20, said her daughter had been at risk of cardiac arrest as she waited for follow-up surgery at Leeds General Infirmary.

"They should have done in the timescale - but didn't," Ms Smith said.

"It's just traumatic having it cancelled five times and being dragged into hospital three times.

"By leaving it so long my daughter could have gone into cardiac arrest but the hospital was working as fast as they could to reschedule."

The one-year-old is now recovering well from her surgery.

Dr Yvette Oade, Chief Medical Officer for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said the "difficult" decision to cancel the operation was "not taken lightly".

"Children undergoing major surgery are cared for post-operatively in our paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

"In times of high demand for PICU - when the unit is full of seriously ill children - we have to make the difficult decision to postpone non-emergency, planned operations.

"These decisions are not taken lightly but we have to ensure we put patient safety first and continue to provide the highest standards of care for our patients.

"We empathise with Evelyn and her family and we are very sorry that their experience didn't match our high standards."

Prime Minister Theresa May recently apologised to NHS patients for "frustrating"delays to planned operations caused by winter pressures.