A Smith's Parish couple have praised the vigilance of doctors and staff at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after their ten-month-old son was identified with a life-threatening heart disease.

Little Thomas Bullock's heart was literally racing as the mechanism which regulates its beat was superseded by another part of the heart which took over as a pacemaker.

His worried parents took him in to the hospital six weeks ago after he appeared irritable. Paediatrician Dr. Peter Perinchief spotted something was seriously wrong and referred him to Boston Children's Hospital.

He said: "He was struggling, his life was in great danger."

To make matters worse, a storm delayed the arrival of the air ambulance from Atlanta.

Mum Lindsay Bullock said: "I was beside myself at that point anyway, the whole thing was a living nightmare. There is nothing worse than having a sick child. He was in quite bad shape."

Staff in Boston made the diagnosis. Dr. Perinchief explained what the Boston doctors had found: "Instead of beating at 120 times a minute it was beating at 200 times a minute. It's extremely rare and difficult to control."

Mrs. Bullock said: "The problem with babies is they can't tell you what's wrong. That's what was really terrifying.

"Babies can fall ill quickly but they are resilient. If he had been an adult he would have been on his back unconscious but he was playing."

She said specialists have to weigh up precisely the right chemical formula to tackle the problem from 50 options.

"They got it right by trial and error after trying five medications," she explained.

Now they are keeping their fingers crossed after learning that 50 percent of babies outgrow this problem, which Lindsay said might be a factor in crib death.

The family thanked doctors and nurses in Bermuda who played their part.

Mrs. Bullock said: "We feel very grateful they took such good care, if it had gone on much longer it he could have fallen through the cracks. It was potentially life threatening, now he is crawling around and is himself again.

She added: "We feel very indebted to everyone who did their part. Many doctors in Boston praised the rapid response and quick thinking of the doctors and nurses here and suggested we would not have received better care had we been anywhere else. So many people did their part, no one let Tommy down."