A 13-month-old boy left hospital yesterday, five months after his mother was told he was too ill to survive a heart condition and agreed his life support machine should be switched off. Jack Vellam is the youngest patient to stay on an artificial heart for 120 days while he recovered from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.

The boy, from Pitsford, Northamptonshire, was due to have a heart transplant after suffering a heart attack in March that left him so ill his mother initially agreed to remove his life support. After being transferred to the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, Jack was placed on a machine which acted as a temporary heart and lungs.

But doctors decided to see if he could pull through without a transplant. Around one in three children recover on their own. He was put on a Berlin heart - an external artificial heart - for 120 days before it was removed 15 days ago. Jack's mother Danielle Hastings, 18, said: "It's still dawning on me that we are going home."