Vital US brain op for Liam, 2

A TWO-YEAR-OLD Kerry boy will become the youngest child in the world to undergo pioneering brain surgery to combat a fatal disease.

Liam Heffernan, who has the deadly Battens Disease, has been invited to participate in a second generation human medical trial, which recently commenced at the prestigious Weill Cornell University Hospital, New York.

The potentially life-saving invitation has come nine weeks after his five-year-old sister, Saoirse, died from the disease at the Heffernan family home, in Keel, Castlemaine.