© PALittle fighter: Baby Madison in hospital at just a few weeks old
Madison Quartarone was just a few days old when a midwife noticed that the child's head had swollen noticeably and she was drowsy.
Doctors discovered she had been born with a large benign tumour which was accumulating fluid and growing.
They warned that she would die without surgery and the infant was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where she had to have seven operations in the first seven weeks of her life.
Just two weeks old when she underwent the first procedure, in total she has undergone three embolisation procedures, a delicate and risky operation to starve the tumour of blood by using glue to block off the vessels that supply it.
She is thought to be the youngest patient in the world to undergo this kind of treatment.
Neurosurgeon Dominic Thompson, who treated Madison, said the decision to operate was not taken lightly, explaining: 'The surgery carries the risk of cutting off a blood vessel which supplies the brain or causing the baby to have a stroke.'
After the first operation, doctors were confident they had blocked 75 per cent of the blood vessels supplying the tumour but when Madison returned for a scan a week later, they discovered that it had found a new blood supply.
During the third operation, they blocked every vein to the tumour and later scans revealed that it had shrunk considerably.
After another scare with infection in her brain fluid, little Madison, now eight weeks old, made such a good recovery that she was allowed home in time to celebrate Christmas with her family in Bedford.
Her mother, restaurant worker Charlene Smith, 20, said: 'We are so pleased she's home but we are very tired. She's stable at the moment and is feeding well.'
Madison was born to Miss Smith and her partner, factory worker Nick Quartarone, 25, on November 1.
Madison's grandfather Ian Chandler said: 'Madison has amazed absolutely everybody. Now she is putting weight on and suffering all the problems that other babies have, like trapped wind and colic.'
He added: 'What we are hoping for now is that the tumour continues to shrink.
'She has suffered a few setbacks, but the doctors worked miracles. We're quietly confident that she will get through this.' Mr Chandler said that the family would be going out for a meal to celebrate Madison's recovery.
Although the surgery went well, Madison will have to return to the hospital in the new year for more scans to check on the tumour.
Mr Thompson said she would have died within weeks without the operation.
He said that the surgery was 'groundbreaking'.
He added: 'Embolisation in itself is quite common but there are unique aspects in Madison's case and we are hoping that the procedure will be enough and she will not need a further operation.
'To be born with such a large tumour is very unusual as only a small percentage of tumours present themselves in the first month of life.
'Certainly in my experience, I am not aware of anyone as young as Madison having this treatment and if successful it could be groundbreaking.
'Madison is not out of the woods yet but she does look remarkably well - it has been a very hard time for the family.'
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