A triathlete who suffered multiple heart attacks and 'died' six times has named his first-born child after the surgeon who saved him.

Andrew Britton, 34, was on his dream honeymoon in the Maldives when his heart first failed because of a common virus.

After being treated by local doctors, he was flown to Harefield Hospital, where he stayed for nearly a year before eventually receiving a heart transplant.

Now his wife Lauren has given birth to the couple's first child, despite having been told they might never be able to conceive because of Mr Britton's medication.

The couple have given their son Frank the middle name Fabio – after Mr Britton's heart surgeon, Fabio De Robertis.

Mrs Britton, 34, said: “He's a very inspiring and amazing person. They all are; all the staff at Harefield are fantastic, but it would have been a bit weird if we'd called him Harefield.”

Mr Britton was fit and healthy and had recently completed a half marathon when he became unwell in 2012.

The couple initially thought he had come down with food poisoning or that he was hung-over from the wedding, not knowing he was about to suffer six heart attacks in two days.

Mrs Britton said: “We thought he just had a hangover or 'man-flu', but within a couple of days he'd lost a huge amount of weight and was very sick. He was incredibly fit and very strong beforehand, but he was getting these terrible pains in his chest and couldn't speak.”

She added: "I wasn't really, really worried at this point because I didn't know he was dying."

Mrs Britton called for the local doctor, who put him on a rehydration drip in the couple's beach hut, but it quickly became clear that serious medical intervention was needed.

The couple, who live in Harefield, took a boat to the nearest hospital, where doctors found that Mr Britton's heart rate was 200 beats per minute – more than double a that of a normal, healthy adult.

He was sedated, given defibrillator shocks and warned he could die if not taken to a specialist in Thailand within 24 hours.

Mr Britton, who has since returned to his job as a project manager for InterContinental Hotels, was flown to Bangkok on an emergency medical jet and placed on life support for two weeks.

Eventually he was stable enough to fly home by medical jet and was taken to Harefield Hospital, where he was diagnosed with myocarditis, a condition that can damage the heart muscle and is most commonly caused by a viral infection. It was only then he learned he had suffered six heart attacks.

He was fitted with a pacemaker and defibrillator before leaving the hospital in Hill End Road.

But seven weeks later he collapsed and had to be readmitted, this time undergoing eight hours of open heart surgery, during which he was fitted with a ventricular assist device.

His heart had been so damaged by the infection that he needed a transplant. He stayed at the hospital for months while waiting for an organ to become available, visited daily by Mrs Britton.

She said: “It was absolutely horrible. You just don't know if he's going to make it. It was a very, very difficult time, but you just have to stay positive and the staff there were great; they really kept him going and kept us positive.”

In September 2013, a donor heart was found, and following the transplant Mr Britton recovered well, finally being able to leave the hospital in November – almost a year to the day since he first collapsed in the Maldives.

Mrs Britton discovered she was pregnant with Frank just a month later, which came as a shock as the couple thought Mr Britton's medication may have made him infertile.

Mrs Britton said: “It's amazing being a mum, incredible. He's a very lovely boy."

She added: “We were advised that it was fairly unlikely we would have children because of Andrew's medication, so it was a real miracle for us really.”

Mrs Britton has written a book about the couple's experience, titled Strength in Strangers. It costs £1.99 at Amazon.co.uk, with proceeds going to the hospital.