When Claire Ives was seven months into her pregnancy with her third child, she used a handheld device to hear her unborn son's heartbeat. As she powered the device on, she initially thought it had malfunctioned.

"I thought I wasn't listening right or something. I didn't believe his [heart] rate could be that fast," Ives, who is actually a London nurse, told ABC News.

After doctors were notified of the baby's fast heart rate at about 300 beats per minute, Ives pre-maturely delivered her son, Edward Ives. The baby was born five weeks early by an emergency C-section at the University College London Hospital.

Edward was born with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and was only given a 5 percent chance to live. SVT occurs due to improper electrical impulses in the heart, leading to an irregularly fast heart that can cause heart failure.

When the hearts beats too rapidly, it can't properly fill up and distribute blood to vital organs correctly.

"I just thought he was going to die," Claire said.

A few hours following the birth of Edward, his heart began racing fast again. At that point, the doctors tried to reset his heart rate by shocking it and providing him with different medications. When their plan failed, they were left with minimal options except one that was never before attempted for SVT - lowering the baby's body temperature and decreasing his heart rate.

"We'd gone through all the usual maneuvers that usually work in babies, giving drugs ... trying to shock the heart, the baby and get [a healthy heart rate back]," said Dr. Nicola Robertson, who works inside the neonatal unit at the University College London Hospital.

Over the course of hours, the doctors used a cold gel blanket to lower Edward's body temperature to approximately 91 degrees, which served to protect his organs and slow down the electrical circuit in his heart.

Within the next day Edward was warmed up and his heart started to race. The hospital staff decreased his body temperature once again, which eventually turned out to work effectively. It wasn't until 10 days after his birth that Claire was able to finally hold her son. A month later, she and her husband Phillip Ives, were allowed to bring Edward home to join his two older siblings.

Now a healthy 6-month old, Edward has an excellent prognosis and isn't likely to need any further hospitalization for SVT, though he is being closely monitored.

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