A YEAR-OLD baby girl is recovering after a major heart operation. Jasmin England is back with her family barely a week after the surgery was carried out.

A broad smile lit up Jasmin's face when she got into her pushchair again at her home in Hartington Street at Chatham. When she has not been asleep, Jasmin has been saying the only words she knows, which are "up", "mum" and "grandad".

Her mother, Michelle Thacker, 34, said: "I'm over the moon. She beamed when she got in her pushchair and she started waving her legs and arms about.

"The doctors and nurses were really kind, but towards the end, she screamed when they went near her, even when they listened to her heart."

Jasmin left hospital last Wednesday, just eight days after the four-hour operation to correct a congenital heart defect. The surgery corrected faults with her heart, including a narrowed passage from the heart to the lungs, a hole in the heart, and thickened muscle, which meant blood left the heart without enough oxygen.

But Jasmin's progress was so good, she quickly moved from intensive care to a general ward. Initially, the baby will go to the cardiac unit of Medway Maritime Hospital for weekly check-ups, but the stitches will dissolve naturally.

It is only if she gets hurt she has to be careful, because a small scratch could lead to a major infection. She also has to take antibiotics even for a routine visit to the dentist.

But the family is looking forward to life without the baby constantly becoming breathless, dehydrated and cold, and in the long-term risking blood clots and not being able to breathe.

Mrs Thacker added: "We have been taking it slowly, with not too many people coming to see her at a time. Jasmin has been sleeping a lot, but she has had her first crawl, and it was nice when she only woke up once in the night."