Dover parents were told to say goodbye as baby’s heart raced at 300 beats a minute

The parents of a three-week-old baby have told how they were warned to prepare for the worst after their daughter’s heart started beating 300 times a minute.

Jack and Chloe Giles, from Dover, rushed tiny Erin to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford after she suddenly became unwell.

Doctors battled for hours to stabilise the 22-day-old before discovering her body had gone into cardiogenic shock and her heart rhythm was dangerously out of control.

Recalling the ordeal on Boxing Day last year, Chloe said: “We were at first told Erin was not going to make it. We called her grandparents to come over and say goodbye.

“You can’t imagine how relieved we were when she pulled through. My own father had died the year before from a heart condition.”

Specialists warned Chloe and Jack that Erin would need to be ventilated and undergo a risky cardioversion procedure to shock her heart back into a safe rhythm, with no guarantee she would survive.

Thankfully, the treatment worked.

A specialist intensive care team from Evelina London Children’s Hospital in Westminster was dispatched immediately and, after 12 hours of continuous care in Ashford, Erin was stable enough to be transferred by ambulance to the capital.

A team of expert cardiologists and nurses at Evelina spent the next week treating her in the hospital’s dedicated children’s intensive care unit.

Her parents were able to stay nearby at McDonald House - accommodation provided for families with critically ill children.

Erin was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a rare heart condition caused by an extra electrical pathway, which led to supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) – an abnormally fast heart rhythm. At one point, Erin’s heart was beating more than four times faster than normal.

Dad Jack said on a crowdfunding page: “Without the incredible care, Erin’s future could have looked very different and we are incredibly grateful.”

Erin, who has two big sisters - Evie, six, and Lily, four - has since returned home and is now being carefully monitored by Evelina’s specialist cardiology team, remaining on daily medication to control her condition.

To thank the medics, Jack and his brother Ben this week completed a gruelling 300-mile cycling challenge from South Wales to Dover, raising more than £2,000 for Evelina’s cardiac unit.

They said: “Every pound raised will help Evelina London do incredible things for sick children, young people and their families.”