Raees Hassan was born at Oldham hospital in April last year weighing 6lb 10oz with a serious defect that meant the two main arteries in it were the wrong way around and left him struggling to breathe.
The parents of a baby boy who was born with a heart defect have thanked the late Ken Dodd and his wife Anne for helping to save his life.
Raees Hassan was born at Oldham hospital in April last year weighing 6lb 10oz with a serious heart defect that meant the two main arteries in it were the wrong way around and left him struggling to breathe.
Raees was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital where it was also found he had Covid-19.
The tot's mum and dad Farah and Aqeel were told that their son was to be put on the hospital’s new Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine.
The machine, which takes impure blood from the body, removes carbon dioxide and pumps oxygen-filled blood back in – acting as an external heart and lungs. It was funded by The Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation.
Anne Dodd , 78, had donated £50,000 through the The Alder Hey League of Friends – a charity close to Sir Ken’s heart – just weeks before to pay for it.
After the ECMO treatment Raess then was strong enough for a complicated a six-hour operation to correct his heart malformation – but the couple were warned that his chances of surviving that would be 50-50.
Two weeks after a successful op Raees was allowed home.
Raess’ parents said to the Mirror: "“Ken and Anne Dodd gave Raess the chance to live. I feel so grateful.”
“There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about what could have happened. We were so lucky he had the strength and resilience to get through it with the help of the ECMO.
“He’s a cheeky little thing. He loves his older brother. They play all day. You wouldn’t think he’d been through anything like this.
“He’s happy, healthy and has just started walking."
The couple also remembered their ordeal last year when their son's health deteriorated.
Farah said: "They found his oxygen levels were 30% when they should be in the high 90s. There were 20 doctors and nurses rushing around him. It was so horrible to watch.
“One side of his heart was bigger than the other and the valves problem meant clean blood was being sent to his lungs and impure blood to his body. He was being deprived of oxygen."
Farah and husband Aqeel feared the worst. Farah said: "“Because of his Covid infection we couldn’t be near him. He looked so helpless
“They called the next night and said his condition was deteriorating. It was unbearable. Every moment was gut-wrenching. Every phone call had my heart racing.
“Then they said it could be his last night. I remember me and my husband crying. They said we could visit. We had to see him in full PPE. He was lying with so many wires attached to him.” Anne Dodd , 78, said: “I understand no sooner had the machine received than it was needed urgently and saved the life of a very sick child.
“Naturally I was so thrilled with this news when they told me.”
The Knotty Ash comic married long-term love Anne on his deathbed. She said he wanted to use his wealth to give back to the local services that meant something to him.
Since then Anne has overseen donations to Alder Hey, a new church hall for St John The Evangelist opposite his old home, Shakespeare North theatre company, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital where he was treated before he died, and Clatterbridge Hospital, Wirral, where he was patron.
“Ken did anything for anybody.
"He started off Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation before he died and a lot of his money has gone into that.
“It helps keep his spirit alive and keeps me going. He had no desire for the trappings of wealth and it was his wish most of his estate would go to charities close to his heart.
“The biggest thing is to do with our church hall. We’ve extended it, now it’s about to reopen. It was his first school. It will be the Sir Ken Dodd Happiness Hall for Church and Community.
“We’ve put a lot of money into the Ken Dodd Performance Garden for Shakespeare North in Prescot.
“They’re building an Elizabethan amphitheatre.”
Renowned for his live stand-up performances, Sir Ken – was still wowing audiences in the months leading up to his death.
Anne said: “The years dropped off him when he went on stage
"He was 90 when he did his last show. We were still doing two or three a week, four hours on stage, in his last year.
“He’d look 30 years younger when he stepped out on stage. He thrived on it.
“He used to say ‘I’ve been blessed with this gift’ as he didn’t think he deserved it. He loved getting laughs out of people.”
A lifelong resident of Knotty Ash in Liverpool, Dodd’s career as an entertainer started in the mid-1950s.
His big break came in a 1965 London Palladium season in the Swinging Sixties and he even had a chart-topping hit, Tears, at the height of Beatlemania in his home city.
His most famous prop was his red white and blue tickling stick. “I still have a few around the house,” said Anne.
This month the normally private widow released The Squire of Knotty Ash and his Lady, an intimate biography of Sir Ken Dodd’s life.
Talking about their 40 years together, former Bluebell dancer Anne told about their low-key marriage two days before Ken’s death.
“He was very poorly. But his voice was much louder than it had been in previous weeks. He said his vows crystal clear. I miss him.
“He’d leave me little notes all the time, saying he loved me, which I still have. You don’t throw them away."