Baby born with heart outside body battles for life after surgery

Defying the odds, a five-week-old baby continues to fight for her life after she was born with a heart outside her body.

Doctors are optimistic that the infant will survive after she went through a lifesaving surgery at Texas Children's Hospital in the US, reports NY Daily News.

Audrina Cardenes was born with a rare condition known as ectopia cordis. According to the hospital's official blog: “Only 8 out of 1 million babies are born with ectopia cordis, and 90% of these babies are either stillborn or die within the first 3 days of life.”

A team of surgeons carried out the complicated surgery to put the child's heart back inside her body.

"Audrina’s tiny heart was intact and structurally sound, but about “a third” was also completely outside her chest, “just sitting out to the world,” Dr Charles Fraser, the Texas Children's surgeon-in-chief who led her operation was quoted by the website.

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Doctors are being cautiously optimistic about the long-term pronosis of the infant as she continues to make amazing recovery.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

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