Baby born with heart outside his chest

[Niels Bohr 72]

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A newborn baby boy with a heart protruding from his chest is set to undergo a complex surgery in New Delhi, India doctors said Monday.

The child has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where his heart has been covered with a synthetic membrane and infected blood fully replaced from his body, said A.K. Bisoi, professor of cardiothoracic surgery.

He told CNN that the four-day-old baby was taken in with a severe infection and dehydration as his parents brought him in a train from a remote region along India's border with Nepal.

The child also has a hole in his heart and is thought to have an extremely rare condition called ectopia cordis where the chest fails to close over all or part of the heart.

"There are only five to eight cases of this kind in one million live births," Bisoi told CNN.

Doctors were surprised that the baby had been able to survive despite so many complexities, he said.

Surgeons may now plan to carry out an operation using a total circulatory arrest procedure that will also involve creating a home for the heart in the chest, said Bisoi.

The baby, who suffers from immuno-deficiency, will be put in a state where his blood will be cooled down to 18 degrees, (64 Fahrenheit), for a half-an-hour stage of the operation, he explained.

"We are working with hope," Bisoi said when asked about chances of success.

In 2006, doctors in Florida, U.S. carried out a similar operation on Naseem Hasni who was born with his heart outside his chest.

The operation was carried out immediately after Naseem was born by caesarean section at a Florida hospital.

Doctors wrapped his heart in Gore-Tex, a waterproof, breathable fabric used in outdoor clothing and medical applications. His heart was then wrapped in a layer of his own skin, to substitute for his missing pericardium, the sac that encloses the heart.

The heart was then slowly eased inside his chest.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Oh my

[Peikko 1,575]

Amazing what doctors can do, even if it's not always successful in these complicated cases.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Is that as amazing as some of the members here who were born with their heads up their a$$??

[Amby 490]

oh wow. lucky baby. didn't this happen last year as well?

[mawilson 2,133]

oh wow. lucky baby. didn't this happen last year as well?

Maybe it was on Grey's Anatomy?

[Amby 490]

oh wow. lucky baby. didn't this happen last year as well?

Maybe it was on Grey's Anatomy?

hmmm...but I remember seeing pictures of it and thinking HOLY SH*T!

[Amby 490]

Naseem Hasni was born by cesarean section on October 31st with his heart outside his chest. Doctors from the Holtz Children's Hospital, Miami, Florida, USA, carried out corrective surgery on him and say the boy should be able to lead a nearly-normal life. He is currently in a 'critical but stable' condition. At birth, he weighed 9 pounds and 2 ounces, and was 21 inches long.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/57447.php

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15857266/

I think that's the one I remember

[meowmeowmeow 1]

wow...poor child hope he pulls through :(

[ddartt1 2]

oh wow. lucky baby. didn't this happen last year as well?

Maybe it was on Grey's Anatomy?

[Amby 490]

A baby boy was born in India Thursday with his heart outside of his body, London’s Daily Telegraph reported.

Vibha Devi suffers from ectopia cordis, a rare condition that causes most babies to die within hours of being born, but there was some “guarded optimism,” for the baby who survived an 800-mile train ride to Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences for surgery.

“He is stable and is being treated for infection,” said Dr. A.K. Bisoi, a cardiologist at the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department at AIIMS. “His parents are lucky the baby is still alive after the infection as it has spread to all the body parts. We are trying our best to save the baby.”

Vibha Devi’s mother is still in the hospital after her Caesarean section, so her husband and father are staying with the baby in Delhi, where five surgeons will put Vibha’s heart inside his body should he survive the next few weeks.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,545139,00.html