Baby born in MP with heart outside her body
SAGAR (MP): Her heart is literally beating outside her body. This newborn girl with a rare congenital medical condition called Ectopia Cordis is battling for her life in Bundelkhand’s Chhatarpur district. Her anxious father is running from pillar to post for her treatment.
According to medical experts the occurrence of such a case is as low as 8 per 10 lakh births.
Her father Arvind Patel lives in Khajuraho and works as a private security guard at the world heritage site Khajuraho temple. “On April 5 around 3.26 am at Khajuraho Primary Health Center my wife gave birth to the girl child who was having her heart outside. The doctor referred us to Chhatarpur district hospital but did not give us anything in writing,” he told HT.
Patel said at Chhatarpur district hospital, his wife was admitted in the child and maternity ward but not much could be done. “The doctors there told us that for treatment we have to take the child outside and her treatment will be very expensive and cost around ₹25-30 lakh.”
Patel said he received a call from the hospital informing him hat the child will be referred to Gwalior. “So on Friday evening we left for Gwalior were she was admitted at Gajraja Medical College”, he said.
He said he came back from Gwalior to meet the Chhatarpur collector to seek help. The infant was eventually referred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal.
Ramesh Bhandari, collector Chhatarpur told HT government aid would be provided to the infant. “The girl has been referred from Gwalior to AIIMS on Saturday... all possible help will be extended to the family.”
What is ‘outside heart’ ?
According to medical experts, Ectopia Cordis is a congenital malformation in which the heart is abnormally located either partially or outside the thorax. It results from a failure of proper maturation of body wall formation during embryonic development.