The first thing a mother wants to do when they give birth is hold their child.

Esher mum Lisa Parsley would not be able to hold her son for a week because he was rushed to intensive care the moment he was born.

Rocco was born with a congenital heart condition where the major arteries leaving the heart are the wrong way round.

Lisa, 36, from Esher, said: “As the sonographer took my hand at my 20-week scan, I knew by the look on her face something was terribly wrong with our baby.

“I remember my hands shaking uncontrollably and the room beginning to spin.

“I convinced myself that if there’s a problem with his heart there was no hope as it’s the heart that keeps our bodies alive.

“This very grand and scientific sounding name threw me into a panic stricken place and my perfect little world came crashing down.”

The doctors reassured her the operation, an Arterial Switch, could be successful.

Lisa blamed herself. She said: “I thought it was something I had done.”

If the scans, done at Kingston Hospital, had not picked up the condition, the result could have been devastating.

The mum-of-three said: “Rocco would have been born at a local hospital and not surrounded by heart experts at St George’s.

“We were told he nearly certainly would have died.”

Even though doctors knew that Rocco had the defect, when he was born he was even sicker than expected.

Lisa said: “He was electric blue.

“Doctors went to work on him straight away.

“It was awful.

“Being a mother to two young boys already, I always tried to be organised, but suddenly I felt every bit of control over my life being ripped away from me and there was nothing either my husband Jon or I could do except trust the amazing doctors.”

At just six days old, Rocco underwent the procedure, which swapped the major arteries back to their normal position.

Lisa said: “We didn’t want to name our baby until after he recovered, as up until that point, we hadn’t even seen his eye colour and all his features because of all the tubes and wires.

“I was determined to give him a slightly different name, considering all he had been through in his first few days of life. We decided on Rocco after the Patron Saint of health and because he was our little fighter.”

Lisa was able to hold her son for the first time the day after the operation, and six days later the family brought him home. 

Rocco, now three, is doing “brilliantly”.

His mum said: “He’s healthy and happy and is able to keep up with his brothers.

“It’s important for me to share his story with people because it could help them and give them hope.”

Lisa is backing the British Heart Foundation’s Christmas Appeal after her son’s fight for survival.

Each year, around 4,000 babies are diagnosed with a congenital heart defect in the UK. To donate go here.