WITH her bright eyes and cheeky smile little Mila Kerr looks like any other healthy toddler.

But when she was born she was so ill her parents feared their first cuddle with her might also be their last.

She had four large holes in her heart, her windpipe was attached to her oesophagus, and her oesophagus did not attach to her stomach.

Surgeons had to stop her heart in a life-saving operation when she was just a few weeks old, and since then she has been kept alive - by a rubber band.

It was tied around her pulmonary artery to stop her from drowning in her own blood.

Mother Michelle Haley, from Ayr, said: “They managed to close the large hole at the top, but her heart was so small they couldn’t access the three at the bottom. But, if they didn’t do it, they said she would go into heart failure because her heart would be working too hard and there would be too much blood going into the lungs.

“So, to give her the chance to grow, and hopefully allow the holes to close themselves, they put this band around her pulmonary artery to stem the blood flow to the lungs.”

Each of the holes in Mila's strawberry-sized heart measured around half a centimetre.

Now as she watches her 15-month-old develop like any other toddler, the 36-year-old, said: “She’s my biggest inspiration. Not a day goes by when she doesn’t wake up with a smile. She’s an amazing little miracle and just happy to be in the world.

“I can’t get over how she can be so sweet natured after everything she has been though.

“She’s been a little warrior since day one.”

And while some cardiac babies tend to be smaller than their peers, Mila is already above average on all of her growth charts.

During her 10-week fight for life, however, Miss Haley and father Ross Kerr, 34, an offshore turbine engineer, feared they would never see their little girl, who suffered countless complications, including a collapsed lung, doing so well.

Her diagnosis came as a shock as her parents had expected to take their baby home after a couple days.

But when doctors tried to put a tube down Mila’s throat and into her stomach when she started to bring up mucus, they realised something was wrong.

And at just a few hours old, Mila, who was delivered by caesarean section on July 2, 2016, was rushed by ambulance from Crosshouse Hospital in Ayr to Glasgow Children’s Hospital for specialist care.

She had a rare condition called TOF/OA vacterl, which causes a combination of feeding and cardiac anomalies.

Mila was only two days old when she had her first operation to detach her windpipe from her oesophagus and attach her oesophagus to her stomach to enable her to swallow.

But she had to wait a further eight weeks for her heart operation.

Miss Haley said: “When they first told us what was wrong I just broke down. You just don’t expect it. You just assume you’re having a little girl and after a couple of days in hospital you will get to take her home.”

Instead the first time she properly held her baby was just before she was whisked 40 miles away.

The mother-of-one, who was still recovering from having a caesarean, said: “It was like saying goodbye. We were holding our daughter and we couldn’t help wonder if it was going to be the last time.”

Now to thank the hospital which saved their daughter’s life and the charities which have helped them through their ordeal, earlier this month Miss Haley and her partner raised hundreds of pounds by completing the Great Scottish Run.

Miss Haley, an account delivery manager, said: “Mila is now just over one year old, a milestone that at points we didn’t think she would see. We just wanted to give something back to help other children and families in similar situations.”

Mila's parents have recently learned that she will need another operation to remove the pulmonary band, as the three remaining holes have not closed themselves as initially hoped.

That surgery is scheduled to go ahead next month, when surgeons will also close the holes by inserting a plug in one of them.

Miss Haley said: “From what I can gather it’s like a double-sided umbrella and, as she grows, it will just become a part of her.”

This surgery is not expected to be as invasive as her first open-heart procedure, which was one of the worst days of her parents' life.

Miss Haley said: “Without the heart operation she would have died. Her body just wouldn’t have been able to cope with the holes the size they were.

“But I just couldn’t get over how they could stop someone’s heart and start it again. I thought, ‘what if it doesn’t start again?’.

“It was awful. I didn’t like to make too many plans in case she didn’t survive. We just took it one day at a time”

Mila spent several days on a ventilator, needed a blood transfusion and, as a result of the multiple holes in her heart, she was too tired to feed so had a feeding tube inserted. This was removed only three weeks after she got home from hospital.

Recalling the moment the couple first got to bring Mila home, Miss Haley said: “It was unbelievable. It was even better than when she was born because the day she was born was filled with heartache and we wondered if she was going to survive.

“It was just amazing being able to take her out in the pram for the first time.”

But she added: “We didn’t expect it, so we didn’t have a going home outfit ready, so she had on a pink and white stripey baby grow and she looked like a little convict escaping.”

During their 10 weeks in Glasgow, the Ronald McDonald House became their home and allowed them to stay close to their daughter.

Miss Haley said: “It was a Godsend. We couldn’t have afforded to drive up and down the road every day, and knowing we were only a few minutes walk away was so reassuring.”

But after being away for so long, she admitted they found it strange adjusting to life outside hospital.

“Having her not connected to any machines was strange” she said. “Hospital life became normal, but every day was heart-breaking for us having to leave her at night, even though we were just down the road. I would stay as late as I could and slept there a few times in the chair.

“There were a few times they had to press the red button and that’s when everyone just came running. It was really hard.”

But Miss Haley said: “To look at her now you would think she was a perfectly normal child with nothing wrong with her. People are amazed when I tell them what she has all been through and what she still has to go through.

“We are anxious about the next one [operation] coming up. But she’s in the best hands. The treatment she has been given has been second-to-none. We can’t fault it. We are just so thankful to everyone who has been a part of it. We just feel so lucky.”

Mila still has some difficulty swallowing large pieces of food because her oesophagus muscles do not work as effectively as normal.

But nothing is holding her back. She is above average on all her growth charts and is already one to her next challenge - learning to run.

And earlier this month her parents donned their running shoes to complete the Great Scottish Run in aid of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, Ronald McDonald House in Glasgow, and TOFS, which supports families of children born unable to swallow.