Doctors at the Royal Brompton say Heava's surgery is routine

Doctors at the Royal Brompton Hospital performed a three hour operation on four-month-old Heava Jesim and she is now in intensive care.

The little girl, who is one among many children needing urgent treatment in Iraq, was born with a hole in her heart and it was feared she would die without expert surgery.

She could not be treated in her native Baghdad as local doctors did not have enough specialist equipment but her plight was taken up by the charity Chain of Hope who arranged treatment in the UK.

The charity said she was "doing very well" and that the hole had now been repaired.

Emma Scanlon, from Chain of Hope, told BBC News: "She was not going to survive a few more days in Baghdad.

"The heart hospital has been looted and all the equipment lost."

Charity volunteers organised Heava's transfer to the UK

Volunteers arranged for Heava to be flown to Kuwait and then Britain after her story was highlighted in a BBC news report.

Her operation at the Brompton - which specialises in heart and lung conditions - is considered routine in the UK.

Ms Scanlon said the baby will remain in intensive care for about five days and can then be moved onto a ward before going to a host family.

She should go home in two to three weeks.

A hospital spokeswoman said Heava's condition was stable on Sunday.

Earlier Dr Piers Daubenay, paediatric cardiologist, told BBC News: "The good news is that she is definitely operable and we can do something to make her better."

Heava was flown to Britain from Kuwait, accompanied by a doctor and nurse from the Royal Brompton Hospital.

The spokeswoman said: "The situation is Iraq is rather grim and there was no opportunity for her to have the operation there."

There are hundreds of children who need medical care Emma Scanlon, of Chain of Hope

After surgery, Heava is due to spend two weeks in hospital, after which she is expected to be able to return to be cared for by her parents, who are staying with an Iraqi family in London.

Ms Scanlon told BBC News Chain of Hope would stay in contact with her parents after their return to Baghdad.

But she added: "There are hundreds of children who need medical care."

Heava is not the first Iraqi child to be treated in the UK.

Last month six-month-old Mareyam Ailan, who suffered severe burns to her body and face in a house fire in Basra, was treated at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital.