THE Russian girl who was flown 2500 miles to Glasgow for heart surgery

could lead a near-normal life after one more operation, her surgeon at

the Royal Hospital for Sick Children said yesterday.

Mr Jim Pollock operated on Albina Tereskina's defective heart valve

last week and expects her to be ready to go home to Sverdlovsk in a

fortnight.

Albina had only months to live when Mr Pollock agreed to take on the

case after surgeons in the US and Moscow turned it down as too risky.

He found it would be possible to do it in two stages; the next, in

about five years, will be trickier than last week's, but by then she

will be older and sturdier.

Her mother Darina -- who is in Glasgow with her -- and father Andrei,

back home with brother Sasha, 7, appealed internationally for Albina's

life-saving treatment.