A mother-of-three who suffered heart palpitations for more than a decade has finally found relief after a heart operation carried out through her LEG.
Joanne Green, 34, had an abnormally fast beating heart and would become out of breath walking her children to school.
Doctors were alerted to the problem when her heart rate soared to 180 beats a minute when she was giving birth to her third child Harry in 2008.

A heart specialist discovered Jo's heart had a second pathway in it that was allowing rogue electric impulses to disrupt its normal rhythm.

Joanne said: 'I was given two choices, I could either take medication for the rest of my life or I could have this quick procedure that would cure me.'
Experts at University Hospital in Coventry passed wires (catheters) from the top of Joanne’s leg until it reached her heart, where the problem was identified.
Cardiologist Dr Faizel Osman and his team then 'burnt' away a small area of the heart that was causing Joanne’s heart beat to race, using radio frequency energy.
Joanne was awake during the entire two-hour operation and was allowed home the same day.
'The operation felt a bit strange because I could hear the doctors giving each other instructions,' she said.

'But they were absolutely great and kept talking me through what was going on and what I could expect.
'I must admit it was a bit sore when they were trying to push the wires into my leg , but it didn't feel like a two-hour operation at all.'

A catheter can be guided to the heart either through the arm or, as in Joanne's case, through the top of the thigh

Six months later and Joanne was given the all clear by doctors. She has waved goodbye to the palpitations that plagued her for 12 years.
'I used to get out of breath just walking up the hill to pick the kids up from school and start getting palpitations,' Joanne from Coventry said.
'But now my asthma is much better too and I can't recommend it enough to other patients in the same shoes.'
Passing a catheter through the leg gave medics easier access to the vital organ and meant that they avoided more invasive open heart surgery.
Dr Osman said the operation had been a complete success.
He said: 'This treatment actually gives sufferers a cure. It means patients don't have to put up with ongoing medical therapy or symptoms as a result.
'It improves their quality of life.'

For more information on heart rhythms visit the British Heart Foundation website