IT IS the reason that little Charlotte Wallis is alive today.

When she was rushed into hospital in Portsmouth at just six weeks old with a life-threatening heart defect, there was only one place and one group of people who could save her - the Wessex Cardiac Paediatric Unit team at Southampton General Hospital.

She was transferred within hours, where highly-skilled surgeons were waiting to replace a faulty valve in her tiny heart.

It was touch and go at every stage - but in just one week from now her parents and everyone at the cardiac unit will join together to celebrate her first birthday.

Although a heart defect like Charlotte's is rare in tiny babies, she is among almost 1,000 children who pass through the unit in Southampton every year.

Now the staff who work so hard to save these youngsters' lives are to have their dedication and commitment recognised when Prince Edward and his wife visit the redeveloped ward today.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex will reopen the unit, which was redesigned with more than £1m funding from Wessex Heartbeat to make the centre one of the finest in the UK.

They will tour the unit, including the high-dependency bay, meeting staff and parents and seeing some of the babies and other young patients.

A posy will be presented to the countess by four-year-old heart patient Emily Chiverton, from East Cowes, and the earl will unveil a commemorative plaque.

Pete Wickham, fundraising manager at Wessex Heartbeat, said around 40 per cent of the patients going through the ward were under one year old. He added that the unit had been desperately in need of a makeover.

"The previous ward was 25 to 30 years old and it didn't have the sort of facilities to make it suitable for the things that are done nowadays. It's been totally taken apart and all air-conditioned and had new plumbing and electrics.

"It has a four-bed, high-care area, which means some children won't need to go into intensive care and other children will be able to come out of intensive care much more quickly. It's got a couple of en-suite rooms where the parents of the tiniest and sickest children can stay.

"There are new kitchen facilities, new consultants' rooms, and it's been decorated in, well, it's called the Ocean Ward and it all follows an ocean theme. The dcor is really bright and cheery whereas it was previously pretty grey and bland and not very conducive towards a happy atmosphere at all."

Mr Wickham said youngsters from across the region came to be treated at the unit because of its reputation for excellence.

"Success rates here are about 97 per cent. It's partly, or mostly, because it has some of the most eminent doctors and nurses from across the UK here.

"Because of Heartbeat we have been able to redevelop the children's ward and we've been able to put in a training ward - the Heartbeat Suite - where we've been able to share pictures across the world of live operations here.

"What is done here doesn't just have regional implications, it has implications on a national and international front. It's a training hospital and because of the facilities that Heartbeat is able to provide and the specialist equipment there, the unit has a reputation that attracts some of the best doctors around and retains them as well."

WESSEX HEARTBEAT FACTFILE:

The charity was set up in 1992 to support the work of the Wessex Cardiac Unit in Southampton General Hospital

The unit is the local cardiac centre for the population of most of central southern England, and also routinely treats patients from the Channel Islands, Devon and Cornwall

It is one of the most successful units in the country, treating more than 20,000 patients a year for every kind of serious heart disorder and leading the field with certain cardiac procedures

The unit has a world-renowned reputation for treating children born with congenital heart disorders

Up to 1,000 children are treated every year, almost half of whom are under one year old, while as many as 250 undergo cardiac surgery

Since 1992, Wessex Heartbeat has raised £6m to develop the cardiac unit

The charity has built a 13-bedroom property next to the hospital to provide comfortable accommodation for relatives of patients

Wessex Heartbeat has bought more than £2m-worth of vital specialist equipment

The charity has equipped a new high-dependency ward that allows additional operations to be performed

A number of research projects have been funded by the charity to examine the causes of and most effective treatments for a range of heart conditions

Wessex Heartbeat has created one of the finest training facilities in the UK, allowing more staff to be trained more effectively, as well as supporting staff in undertaking external training