The parents of an unborn baby diagnosed with half a heart refused to abort the child prior to his birth.

Marcus Dunn was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Doctors say that Marcus has half a heart, a condition that strikes one in one ­million.

Parents Whitney Allison and Troy Dunn told the Maitland and Mercury that their son’s diagnosis came after a 24 week ultrasound.

They say doctors told them things were not good.

“The options were to terminate the pregnancy, or deliver at term and hold our baby until he died in our arms, or deliver him and opt for high-risk surgery, which is what we did,” Ms Allison said.

“We knew there was a low survival rate and doctors strongly recom­mended I terminate [the pregnancy, but we were willing to take the risk to give Marcus a chance at life.”

Marcus was born on April 2nd – he was full term.

His parents say that he underwent the first round of open heart surgery when he was two days old.

“Doctors are still learning about this genetic condition and I do feel like Marcus is a guinea pig at times, but to look at him now we wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

A shunt was inserted into an artery to maintain blood flow into his lungs.

Marcus almost died but is still holding on, a fighter, his parents call him.

He is scheduled to have a second round of surgery in a few weeks.

“We don’t know what’s ahead for Marcus but what we do know is that he is a little fighter,” they said.

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