13912/6GAZETTE & HERALD: FOUR months after life-saving open heart surgery, tiny Beth Picter continues to go from strength to strength.

But despite making a breathtaking recovery from her operation in April, her parents have learned she will still need further surgery in later life.

The two-year-old of Sherington Mead, Chippenham, underwent a five-hour operation to widen her pulmonary artery and mend a large hole in her heart at Bristol Children's Hospital.

Just 24 hours later and to the delight of her parents Julie and Rod and brothers Ryan and Joe, she was back in the cardiac ward and smiling.

And she has further amazed her family and doctors by walking, talking and even singing in recent months.

But examinations have shown her artery is leaking again and doctors have prepared her parents for the fact that she may need a new heart valve in six years' time.

"We were a little deflated to learn that Beth will probably need another operation, but we have decided to cross that bridge when we come to it," said Mrs Picter.

"She will probably be eight years old by the time she needs another operation and by then she will be bigger and stronger and will be able to boss the surgeons around herself!

"At the moment we are just over the moon that she is doing so well," she added.

"Within two weeks of her operation, she was up and walking. She didn't have the strength to do it before because she wasn't getting enough oxygen to her heart.

"And now she is chatting away, her cheeks are rosy and she even sings to us she is like a new child."

Beth was born with a rare heart abnormality, which resulted in a hole in her heart and the gradual narrowing of her pulmonary artery.

At just five months old, she underwent keyhole surgery to insert a shunt into the artery, to stop blood leaking outwards.

The surgery in May came after she had started to suffer alarming 'blue' spells, in which she would faint through lack of oxygen.

Following the open heart surgery, Beth had to visit the hospital every week for six weeks for tests.

"We had a worrying time when she developed fluid around her heart but the doctors managed to stop that," said Mrs Picter.

"On the sixth test they told us that the fluid had gone, but that the pulmonary artery had slightly narrowed again. She's doing very well though and the long scar on her chest is fading fantastically.

"She loves pushing her dolly around on its buggy and playing with her brothers there's no stopping her."

Beth also suffers from the rare chromosome condition, DiGeorge Syndrome, which has not only damaged her immune system, but has affected her growth and makes it difficult for her body to digest food.

As a result, she is smaller than an average child of her age and up until May was fed through a tube in her nose.

"When Beth came out of hospital, she kept on trying to pull the tube out of her nose and eventually we took it out," said Mrs Picter.

"She is still eating baby food, but also small pieces of bread and we have been told that she will eat normally in her own time."

During April's operation, the most technical performed on a child of her age, Beth was wired up to a by-pass machine to keep her damaged heart beating, while the artery was widened to allow more oxygen to reach her heart.

In the following 24 hours in intensive care she was also helped to breathe by a ventilator. But just halfway through the usual 48-hour stay in the high dependency unit, she was declared well enough to go back to her ward.

She returned home just six days after going into hospital.

In the coming months, Beth's parents plan to start her swimming.

"She loves being in the bath and I'm really looking forward to being able to do some normal things with her like swimming," said her mum.

"She has been attending Springboard nursery in Chippenham, where the staff are amazing.

"We do not know yet whether she will have any special needs as she gets older, but she has a lovely time there, playing with the other children.

"She's also starting at Bright Sparks nursery in Langley Burrell soon, which will be mean being without me, but we know she'll love it in fact it will probably be me who gets upset when she goes.

"We're just enjoying seeing her happy and well she's such great fun and when she falls down she just gets straight back up she's a tough little nut."