‘Guardian angels’ fund baby surgery

He was born into turmoil in strife-torn Ukraine with a defective heart but, thanks to the skills of an Irish-funded surgical team, nine-day-old Miroslava is off the critical list.

The tiny infant was the sickest of 60 children suffering from heart defects whose surgery was delayed when the increasingly volatile situation in Ukraine forced organisers of the mercy mission to twice cancel the surgical team’s travel plans.

They finally made it to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine last weekend, much to the relief of Chernobyl Children International, which, together with the International Children’s Heart Foundation, funded the mission.