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Baby Born With External Heart Recovering After Surgery

Posted on: Friday, 4 September 2009, 14:01 CDT

An infant born with his heart outside of his body is reportedly recovering after surgeons completed the process of inserting the heart inside his body on Friday.

The 10-day-old boy was born with a rare medical condition known as a complete thoracic ectopia cordis.

"We gently placed the heart partly in the heart cavity and partly in the stomach cavity without twisting, kinking or rotating anything," cardiac surgeon A. K. Bisoi told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

Over the course of the four-hour operation, 13 surgeons worked to create space large enough for the boy’s heart to fill within his body.

“As there was no place for the baby's heart in his chest, we had to create it,” Dr Yogendra Gupta said.

The unnamed infant is reportedly recovering in the hospital’s ICU, where he is said to be in stable condition.

"The baby is stable. He may not require any other surgery," Bisoi told CNN.

"We will have to keep a watch on how those organs respond," he said.

His parents traveled nearly 700 miles in a train without air conditioning in order to get their son into the hands of surgeons at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

When the baby arrived, doctors noted that he was also suffering from a blood infection, which was probably the result of the long train ride.

"Only when he goes back home hale and hearty can we conclude that this is a successful path-breaking surgery in the history of our hospital," said Bisoi.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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