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Artículo Girl born with heart outside her body survives life-saving surgery against all odds News

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Girl born with heart outside her body survives life-saving surgery against all odds

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Vanellope Hope Wilkins was diagnosed with ectopia cordis and wasn't expected to live

Anna Freeman

13 Diciembre 2017 13:11

A baby that needed surgery within an hour of being born to correct a rare condition that caused her heart to grow outside her body has survived a life-saving operation in the UK, believed to be the first of its kind.

Vanellope Hope Wilkins was diagnosed with ectopia cordis, a rare congenital malformation, after a nine week pregnancy scan showed her heart and part of her stomach had developed outside of her body.

Surgeons at Glenfield Hospital, a specialist children’s heart centre in Leicester, initially believed Vanellope would be impossible to save. They recommended a termination to her parents as the chances of survival were so low, less than 10 per cent.

However, Vanellope’s mother, Naomi Findlay, said ‘this wasn’t an option’ for her. After being born, and following three surgeries to move her heart into her chest and create an artificial rib cage and sternum, the baby girl is now thought to be the first successfully treated case of ectopia cordis in the UK.

Vanellope was due to be delivered on Christmas Eve but was born by caesarean on 22 November and surgery began within the hour.

Her doctors say that so far Vanellope’s health appears to be normal outside of her heart condition, but it is impossible to say for certain.

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