Health

Annie Steven (right) was born with two holes in her heart and desperately needed surgery - but she was deemed too small to operate on at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. Weighing just three pounds when she was born at 34 weeks, she needed three blood transfusions to stay alive. Surgeons told her family she needed to put on another two pounds before she could have the life-saving operation. But sadly she caught an infection while in hospital and died on Wednesday afternoon in the arms of her mother (left), Kirsty Coles, 37.

Queensland mother Rebekka Murray (pictured right with her family) contracted Cytomegalovirus (CMV) for the first time while pregnant. The common virus, which 50 per cent of people have as a child, was passed on to her unborn baby boy Jackson, placing him at risk, Little Jackson (left and inset) was born at 34 weeks via caesarean. He is profoundly deaf. Mrs Murray hopes by sharing her story to raise awareness about the little known, but extremely common, CMV.

Laura Wellington (middle), 24, from Colchester, was diagnosed with joint hypermobility - a condition where the joints are more flexible than usual - as a teenager. After being hit by a drunk and uninsured driver two years ago, doctors feared she would never be able to walk again. But because her body was able to bend and not snap on impact, the outcome was much less severe, experts say. Despite doctors being unsure if she would ever walk again, just 11 days after the accident she managed to take her first steps with the help of a back brace (right). While she now does yoga (left) to help strengthen her joints and is nearing the end of her recovery.

The Mail on Sunday's fitness guru lost his father, former Arsenal star John Roberts, in January this year following a five-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Matt (left) says, 'This is our first Christmas without Dad and it will be difficult.' John Roberts (centre with his family, and right), played for a number of football clubs throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including Swansea, where he signed his first professional contract. Most notably, he went on to play for Arsenal in their golden era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, before spells with Birmingham City and Wrexham.

When Gold Coast woman Brittany Noonan found out she was pregnant (left), she was scared. Having suffered from anxiety, depression and an eating disorder in the past, she was worried how she would cope with her changing body. She suffered with extreme morning sickness and was in-and-out of hospital, before being diagnosed with antenatal depression. Mrs Noonan (pictured right and inset with her daughter, Milena) hopes by sharing her story to let other mothers suffering from antenatal depression know they are not alone, and they can overcome it.

Since the clip of the Benex Extraction System, which was developed in Switzerland, was posted on Facebook last month, it has amassed more than 120,000 views.

Ruby Shallom (left), from Bracknell, Berkshire, was vaccinated at school to protect her against cervical cancer as part of the routine NHS programme. But just weeks later, the keen runner (pictured right with her mother, Nicola, 45 and sister, Evie, 11) started to suffer from stomach spasms, dizziness, pain, headaches and fatigue. Her muscles became weaker and in May - two years after she was given the jab - she woke up with no feelings in her legs whatsoever. She has since lost all sensation in her right arm and is virtually bed-bound in hospital (inset) - unable to eat, lift or dress herself, incontinent and often too weak to lift her head. Doctors have been unable to diagnose the condition and have dismissed it as being psychological, refusing to acknowledge any link to the jab.

Jenny Taft from Walsall recognised the early warning signs of sepsis in her two-year-old son Freddie after reading the Mail's campaign and he was swiftly and effectively treated with antibiotics. She had read he case of William Mead, a 12-month-old who was featured on the front page of the Mail in January. So when her own son Freddie fell ill just three months later she recognised the hallmark signs of sepsis – an illness known as the ‘silent killer’.

Brianna Brewer, from Ohio, was two weeks old when her parents first noticed a tiny bruise-like mark appear on her upper lip (left). Doctors diagnosed it as a hemangioma - a collections of blood vessels that gather underneath the skin to form a reddish-purple lump. Within seven months, the small mark swelled to the size of a kiwi and was larger than Brianna's nose. Fearing her daughter would be bullied, her mother, Hollianna Lockhart, 26, and father, Robert Brewer, 28, (right) desperately looked for a surgeon to perform intricate surgery to reduce the mass.

Formerly conjoined twins Jadon and Anias McDonald have transferred to a new hospital to begin rehabilitation nine weeks after being separated. The twins were separated in a 20-hour procedure at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx on October 13 and 14.  They left the New York City hospital that had been their home since February, transferring to Blythedale Children's Hospital in suburban Westchester. 

Tyraah Bell-Lama (right), from Reading, was just eight months old when she was taken to the doctor with a white glow behind her eye. Doctors thought it may be responsible for her poor vision and immediately referred her to hospital. Blood tests and scans were taken before they revealed on Christmas Eve two years ago that she had retinoblastoma. Just a few weeks later she began six rounds of chemotherapy to battle the disease - which proved to be a success, and now (left, with mother Jade Bell, 27) the two-year-old is thriving.

They spent two-and-a-half years glued to one another, conjoined at the sternum. But over time, life was becoming an insurmountable struggle for Eva and Erika Sandoval. The girls, from Antelope, California - who shared a digestive system, a uterus, a liver, a bladder, a pelvis, and a third leg with a seven-toed foot (top right)- suffered countless infections, and Erika was becoming dangerously weak. Last Tuesday, in one of the riskiest separation operations ever performed (bottom right), the twin girls were successfully separated. And on Monday afternoon, six days after their 18-hour operation, the pair were reunited for the first time. A touching video released by Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford on Wednesday shows the girls' parents carefully carrying one over to the other, while nurses lift the numerous wires and cords with them. Finally lying on a bed together (left), they silently stare at each other. It was a staggering moment of triumph for the entire family after years of fears over the risks surrounding their procedure.

Where you live determines how you die, according to a new study that lays bare the most common causes of death county-by-county across the United States. The data, collected by the University of Washington in Seattle, offers an unprecedented detailed insight into the differing healthcare needs of each region and shows how it has changed since 1980. Cancer kills more people in Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado than anywhere else (as shown top left) while heart disease – the nation’s biggest killer overall – claims most lives in West Virginia and Kentucky, as evidenced by the map pictured top right.

Pensioner Ken Marwood, 82, was visiting a friend in Darlington when he fell in the garden, hitting his head on the hard ground, at about 10.30am yesterday. His wife phoned for an ambulance as her husband, who has diabetes, who was bleeding from the nose and vomiting blood on the cold pavement (left). Despite a number of desperate phone calls to emergency services, Mr Marwood (inset) waited nearly four hours before paramedics arrived (right).

Leah Boxall, 34, (right), cannot turn her head without dislocating her neck and is partially paralysed (left). She suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a condition that has left her spine and neck too weak to support her head and her brain is now slipping into her spinal column crushing her brain stem. Her daughter Caitlyn, 12, (inset), is now her primary carer at their home in Southampton.

Matt Greenwood (left), 21, an engineering student at the University of Oxford, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in his hip, which had spread to his lungs earlier this year. He was in the process of completing his bucket list after friends raised more than £60,000 for him to travel around the world. He had hoped to visit Disneyland in Paris, as well as seeing Rome and Athens in their full glory. While challenges he set out to reach included driving a racing car, going on a hot air balloon ride and completing a sky-dive. But the engineering student, who had his right leg amputated (right) during his battle, passed away on Sunday.

It is just four months since former Marine sergeant John Peck received a double arm transplant.  But he is already showing incredible progress.  Peck lost all four limbs after standing on a homemade bomb in Afghanistan in 2010. Now, the 31-year-old has reached a milestone he never thought possible: he has two fully functioning arms - and is gaining control of his right elbow. In a video posted to his Facebook page on Tuesday, Peck shared a short exercise with his physiotherapist, sliding a block forwards and backwards across a table. For most, it would be simple. For John, it marks a moment of triumph. He beams at the camera as his physiotherapist straps the wheeled block onto his arm. Viewers then watch as Peck visibly strains to push it away from him, and back to his chest, over and over again. Finally, after reaching his total, he says, 'cool!'

Jennie Yoo (left), 27, from Bangkok, Thailand, suffered from discomfort in her two front teeth towards the end of last year. However, she assumed she would just need a filling. But her concerned dentist could not diagnose her problem and sent to a specialist in Seoul, South Korea. X-rays revealed she had cancer, which was causing a tumour in the left side of her jaw. Despite six rounds of chemotherapy (inset), it has continued to grow and has now disfigured her face (right) completely, twisting her nose and left eye.

Zoe Roscoe, (left) 23, from Bolton, was diagnosed with a brain AVM - a tangle of abnormal blood vessels which can bleed and expand - in 2013. It caused her to suffer stroke-like symptoms, and after a scan, she was told the mass on her brain was a 'ticking time bomb' (inset). She underwent radiosurgery (right) - which gives a high dose of radiation to a very small precise area - and the mass was removed. But it left her with severe weakness on her left side and now she's more prone to fall over and lose her balance, with strangers assuming she's drunk.