A brave Aberdeen schoolboy who was the youngest person to receive a mechanical heart pump is battling a blood clot.
Little Ashton Hutcheson, 6, suffers from dilated cardiomyopathy – a rare condition normally only seen in adults that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body.
The condition meant Ashton, of Northfield, was classed as having heart failure.
Doctors fitted the ill schoolboy with a mechanical pump and earlier this years experts said Ashton’s heart had 98% recovered.
But earlier this week during a routine check-up, doctors discovered he now has a clot inside his heart.
Ashton, who is in P2 at Bramble Brae, has now been given medication in a bid to get rid of the clot before it gets worse but mum, Shanna, said she had been left devastated as the find could lead to serious problems for the youngster.
She told the Evening Express: “While they were doing his scans they found out he had a clot.
“They have now put Ashton on new medication to try to dissolve the clot.
“We are now back in Aberdeen and he will have a scan at the end of the week to see if the new medicine has dissolved it or not.
“The clot is in his heart and touching his mechanical one.
“If they don’t get rid of the clot it can cause all sorts of serious problems.
“If it goes to his brain, it could lead to him having a stroke.”
The family will find out tomorrow if the medication has worked.
hanna said she is praying for good news when she finds out if the medication has worked.
She said: “I have my fingers firmly crossed that we get good news.
“He has been doing really well lately and managing to go to football and had managed to go out a bit more too.”