Brit boy, 7, becomes first child to have pioneering surgery using a BALLOON to reverse heart failure
A BOY has become the first child in the UK to have a pioneering treatment to reverse his heart failure.
A small balloon was guided into the narrowed blood vessels of Elliot Atkins, 7, before being inflated to widen them – a procedure known as an angioplasty that is usually on performed in adults.
Elliot was diagnosed with heart failure and a “one in a million” condition called middle aortic syndrome around his first birthday.
Doctors told parents Amy Govier and Thomas Atkins, both 29, that without any action their son would be unlikely to survive.
The 7-year-old was transferred to Great Ormond Street hospital (GOSH) and there doctors discussed giving him an angioplasty to help his heart grow strong enough to eventually have life-saving surgery.
While an angioplasty is a routine treatment in adults, it has not traditionally been considered possible for children with severe heart failure.
An angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that opens up arteries to let blood flow more easily.
It most commonly treats a collection of plaque, made of fat and cholesterol, that has built up in blood vessels.
The procedure involves a tiny balloon being inflated inside narrowed blood vessels to widen them.
Elliot’s parents, who live in Colchester, Essex, first noticed something was wrong when their son became very unwell with a chest infection at 11 months old and was struggling to breathe.
Just four weeks before his first birthday, Elliot had a scan that revealed his heart was enlarged and he was taken to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
There, further tests confirmed the youngster was in heart failure and that his blood pressure was dangerously high.
Doctors also discovered that his aorta – the large tube that connects the heart to the rest of the body – was narrowed.
Elliot’s mum, who works for a care company, said doctors “couldn’t work out why” this was happening and he was referred to Great Ormond Street.
There he was diagnosed with middle aortic syndrome, which leads to the aorta, the body’s main blood vessel, and vessels bringing blood to kidneys to become severely narrowed.
This can significantly reduce blood flow, raise blood pressure, and place extreme strain on the heart, kidneys, brain and eyes.
With such advanced heart failure, major surgery was initially considered too risky for Elliot.
This was until his medical team decided to do an angioplasty – something which has never been performed before on children with heart failure.
Speaking about the decision, dad Thomas, a military medic, said: “There was nothing that we could go and look at and read.
“It meant we couldn’t Google anything to reassure ourselves that this was going to be okay.
“There was stuff on angioplasty, sure, but the patient pool was much, much older, so we knew that the procedure itself was fairly routine, but the fact that it was on a child in Elliot’s condition… we were at a loss really.
“I don’t know, maybe that helped a little bit, ignorance being a bliss.”
Thomas added that the surgeons helped put their minds at ease about the procedure.
But mum Amy said: “I think a lot of it was just pure horror and shock.”
By the age of two, Elliot had gone through six angioplasties, allowing him to become strong enough to withstand a long and complex operation in July 2025.
He had an aortic bypass graft, which created a new route for blood flow around the narrowed section of Elliot’s aorta using a specially designed synthetic graft.
The surgery also relocated his kidney to improve its blood supply and help control his blood pressure.
Amy says that today, Elliot is “running around with his friends and happy”.
She said: “He just knows he’s got this scar on his tummy, and that’s it.
“He is very excited for sports day – they do a class race, which he’s very excited for, and there’s some ball skills, and there’s some throwing that he’s just really excited for all of it.
“He’s just a bundle of joy, he always tries to make people laugh.”
Since Elliot’s first angioplasty in 2020, the teams at Great Ormond Street have gone on to perform angioplasty procedures for other children in heart failure.
Dr Jelena Stojanovic, Elliot’s clinician and lead for the kidney transplant and renovascular service, said: “Following Elliot’s intervention, we have successfully performed this intervention over several other children.
“This is a very rare condition, and the numbers on its own will be small, but what is important is… that the children can be offered the chance to survive.”
Speaking about Elliot’s condition now, he added: “When we as a team look at him today, we see a child who has been given an opportunity that simply would have not existed without the treatment and the extraordinary efforts of the teams involved in his care.
“He’s doing remarkably well, he’s taking fewer medications, his quality of life has improved significantly, and he’s actually back to doing the activities that every child of his age should be able to enjoy.”
