Frankie Shopland is a ball of energy, climbing over furniture and running around in his garden.

Watching him, it’s hard to believe the boisterous little three-year-old is a medical impossibility.

Because Frankie was born with a body half-empty because of a missing right lung and kidney – and a heart on the wrong side.

His chances of survival were so low stunned doctors offered his mum Amie Grant a termination when they saw the black hole on Frankie’s scan.

His condition is so rare there isn’t even a name for it.

But Amie and partner Kerry Shopland were determined that their son should be given the chance to live.

And three years on, after more than 800 days spent in hospital and thanks to the skill of surgeons, their half-empty boy is full of life.

“If the NHS wasn’t here, my son wouldn’t be here,” says dad Kerry, and Amie nods next to him. “It makes you tearful. Frankie’s technically half a human, but to us he’s everything.”

Amie was ecstatic to discover she was expecting her first baby in autumn 2015 and she and Kerry, both 26, were excitedly preparing for the new arrival. But things went terrifyingly wrong at the baby’s 20-week scan.

The shocked sonographer walked out halfway through. “When that happened I knew something wasn’t how it was supposed to be,” Amie said.

“We sat in another little room and waited for someone to come in. She told us, ‘The scan shows the baby has only one kidney and the heart is on the right hand side’. They said they’d never seen anything like it.

“The next question was ‘Do you want a termination?’ But we never even had the conversation. “We just both said, ‘No.’ All we kept thinking was, ‘It’s his choice’.

“If his heart was functioning fine and there was no sign of any other problem, give him the chance. And that’s what we did.”

Kerry adds: “We just knew he was going to make it. We knew he was going to be a special baby.”

The couple, of South East London, were sent to St Thomas’ Hospital for a more detailed scan at 23 weeks.

It was there that doctors also began to suspect the baby only had one lung too.

The couple were told they needed two scans a week and Amie was in hospital full time.

But at 26 weeks she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia – a condition that causes high blood pressure, meaning the mum-to-be had to spend long periods resting. Three weeks later, in May 2016, the baby went into distress with his heart rate dipping and doctors decided on an emergency caesarian.

Frankie was born 10 weeks premature with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and was rushed to the neonatal care unit.

He weighed just 1lb 13oz. The couple named him after Chelsea fan Kerry’s hero Frank Lampard.

Amie says: “We were told before I went in that he might die. I just said, ‘No he won’t.’ We didn’t show negativity. We didn’t speak negatively.

“It was Frankie’s path, his journey and if he was going to make it he would make that footprint for himself. We didn’t want to doubt him.”

The tot was put on a ventilator but – a wriggly boy even then – amazed doctors by pulling it out and breathing unaided on the ninth day.

At a month old Frankie was off all support and only being given a tiny amount of oxygen to help him cope with having one lung. Astonishingly, he was found to be fit enough to be discharged at three months old.

But by November 2016 – after being at home two months – Amie noticed Frankie turning grey and he was rushed back to St Thomas’.

Doctors found he had bronchiolitis – a viral infection of the airways – and pneumonia.

They worked to stabilise him and used a camera to further investigate his condition.

And they discovered not only did he definitely have only a left lung, he also had narrow airways which had grown into the area where his other lung should be.

Although he was sent home again, by Christmas the tot was
back in hospital and his family was told he was so poorly he would have to stay there.

Kerry and Amie had to move permanently to a Ronald McDonald House near to Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where Frankie was being treated.

They still had to shell out £1,000 a month in bills on their house, meaning Kerry had to stay in full-time work as a delivery driver.

Then, in a life already full of drama, Amie discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s second baby, Delilah Rose, who is now two.

Frankie has since had two major operations costing around £5million at Great Ormond Street – one to insert a plastic lung on his left side to act as scaffolding to keep his organs in the right place.

And two weeks after that, he went through further surgery to widen his airways – carried out by a specialist flown in from Boston.

After the surgery, the tot had to stay in hospital for a year to get his strength back. Frankie came home in December 2017 and managed to stay there for nine months before becoming ill again and ending up back in hospital.

In May he turned three and he was finally discharged this week.

He still cannot speak because of the effect of ventilation tubes on his vocal cords, or drink liquids – but the family hope that may improve as he grows.

And although transplants to replace his missing organs are not currently an option, it may become a possibility as medicine advances.

The tot’s prognosis is unknown as doctors have been unable to find a similar case – so Amie and Kerry are simply taking each day as it comes.

Meanwhile, Frankie loves being outdoors, going to the park, climbing, Peppa Pig, dancing and blowing bubbles.

Now his mum and dad – who have since had a second daughter Valencia, now eight months – hope to discover whether there are any other children on the planet like Frankie.

Kerry says: “We’d love to know if there is another Frankie, or is he the only one? It’s undiagnosed in this country but who is to say there’s not another one somewhere in the world?”

They praised the NHS and Ronald McDonald House, which provides accommodation for seriously ill children while they spend long periods in hospital. Amie adds: “Both have allowed our family to stay together, which is wonderful.”

Dr Shelley Riphagen, consultant in children’s intensive care at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, told us: “The health problems Frankie was born with are rare. He is a very unique little boy and has undergone many complex operations and procedures to improve his condition.

“He continues to be cared for by multiple teams at Evelina London, and has done so since he was a baby.

“We are all very glad Frankie is doing well and spends quality time at home with his family.”

And Sue Bennett, deputy house manager of the Ronald McDonald House Evelina London, said: “We’re so glad Frankie and his family were able to stay together while he received treatment.

“People assume you go into hospital, get your treatment, and then you go home.

“But for many families this isn’t the case. We like to think of ourselves as a home from home for families like Frankie’s.”

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