son's heart surgery scar to show his little boy that he is not alone. Richard Davies, 29, decided to get the scar-like tattoo after son Bobby had open heart surgery to repair a birth defect which meant he was born with half a heart.

The floor fitter from Swansea, Wales, spent £200 and two hours having the artwork done on his chest so that his son knows he is never alone.

Richard and mum Natasha, 30, an accountant, first discovered son Bobby had a heart defect at their 20-week scan at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.

Doctors referred them for further tests at the Heath hospital in Cardiff, where doctors confirmed their unborn child was suffering from Tricuspid Atresia, Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome and a Ventricular Septal Defect.

Speaking of the diagnosis, she says doctors gave her three options, to give supportive comfort care, allow him to live as long as he could, or have surgery when he was born.
She says: "Our world came crashing down around us.

"Neither of us had any knowledge of congenital heart defects and didn't know what this would mean for our baby. "We were given three options; surgery when he was born, supportive comfort care meaning we would let him be born with no intervention and allow him to live for as long as he could or a termination.


"As you can imagine at 22 weeks gestation, I was inconsolable. "But my husband and I both knew straight away that we would fight for our baby. "No matter what. So we did. I had frequent scans and was monitored closely through the rest of my pregnancy."

Thankfully, baby Bobby was born at St Michael's Hospital in Bristol in July weighing 7lbs and breathing on his own, meaning that he didn't need to have the surgery right away.