Alfie all smiles after 'dying' for 17 minutes

This miracle Wolverhampton baby was all smiles today after being "dead" for 17 minutes and surviving three heart attacks in as many hours.

Alfie Green was just three weeks old when he went through the ordeal as doctors battled to save his life. They had almost given up on bringing the 6lb 2oz baby back to life when his tiny heart started beating again.

His relieved mother Stacey, aged 24, a special needs teaching assistant, said today: "I just can't believe Alfie has survived three heart attacks.

"When his heart stopped beating for so long we really thought we had lost him, but he's a little fighter. When it started beating again I just cried with relief."

Alfie, now nine months old, was healthy when born at the city's New Cross Hospital last September.

But when Miss Green and partner Leonard Bratt, aged 25, a building site ground worker, took him shopping near their home in Wednesfield one afternoon, he suddenly stopped breathing.

Terrified, the couple called paramedics and at the hospital were told that Alfie had suffered a heart attack.

Over the next two hours, Alfie suffered another two heart attacks, and his heart stopped each time, for 10 minutes and then for two. Each time the doctors managed to restart his heart.