THE mother of a teenager born with heart disease believes the NHS failed her son.

Jaimie Eason, 41, from Shoreham is in America with her son Bradley Harrison, where he has had heart surgery.

Bradley, 17, was told by specialists at the Royal Brompton hospital in London that his only option here in the UK was a heart and lung transplant.

Jaimie said: “We were told in September 2015 Brad’s mitral valve was in need of urgent replacement.

“Then they called and said, actually we’re not going to do it at all and I didn’t question it.

“I just assumed it was because they didn’t need to and was relieved.”

The family was told again last autumn that Bradley urgently needed the valve replaced.

He returned to the Royal Brompton in October but was not strong enough for the surgery.

Throughout the winter, Bradley made frequent trips to Worthing Hospital with stomach problems, chest pain and breathlessness.

In February, he received intravenous heart failure drugs.

Jaimie said: “This was unsuccessful so that is when the Brompton gave the final diagnosis of a heart and lung transplant and said he would have to be ‘too sick to get out of bed’ to go on the list.”

Not willing to wait any longer, the mother of three found a heart specialist in Cleveland.

In the meantime, Bradley continued to deteriorate.

Jaimie said: “Worthing Hospital kept sending him home, they said he had IBS, food intolerances or psychosomatic symptoms due to anxiety.

“They gave him crutches to help him walk, breathing exercises, a restricted diet and increased his medication.”

Bradley flew to the States in June and and was so unwell on arrival he was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Surgeons there replaced his mitral valve and repaired his tricuspid valve, both of which control blood flow to the heart.

Jaimie said: “The specialist is hopeful Brad will eventually have up to 90 per cent functionality of his lungs.

“The NHS wanted to remove them. The surgeon has fixed Brad’s heart, the NHS wanted to remove that too.

“They were going to kill Brad, yet here he sits, same heart and lungs.”

A spokesman at the Royal Brompton said: “We have cared for Bradley since he was younger than six months old, with our surgeons having performed two operations for different heart conditions.

“We have continued to monitor his condition and were aware that his cardiovascular function was deteriorating.

“However, our specialist teams, following thorough assessment, felt that fixing Bradley’s mitral valve was not going to be enough to address his overall condition over the longer term.

“We are still in direct contact with his family and continue to offer our full support.”

Dr Timothy Taylor,

medical director at Worthing Hospital, said: “Our thoughts are with Bradley and his family at this difficult time and we wish him well for his recovery in the States. We remain in direct contact and are offering all the assistance we can while their case is being investigated by NHS Resolution.”