Surgery exposed boy’s heart for FIVE days ...After miracle operation to flip organ that had grown back to front
Atoddler’s beating heart was exposed through a hole in his chest for five days after a life-saving operation to flip it over.
Doctors worked for ten hours to perform the complex surgery on three-year-old Carson Ayre, who was born with his heart back to front.
The youngster had transposition of the great arteries, an extremely rare and life-threatening deformity, which would have resulted in heart failure.
The serious condition meant his heart’s chambers and the veins and arteries which carry the blood were the wrong way around.
A team of experts tirelessly worked at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital to flip the vital organ back the right way round during a pioneering procedure three weeks ago.
They then left the toddler’s chest open for five days to allow the swelling on his heart to go down.
Parents Danicka, 27, and Luke, 25, were able to watch and made an incredible video of their son’s heart beating through the hole in his chest while they maintained a bedside vigil.
The couple, who live in Carlton, Notts., thanked experts for giving saving their toddlers life.
Luke, who works as a care assistant in a nursing home, said: ‘We’re very proud. He’s absolutely shocked us.
‘He was out (of hospital) in two weeks when they said it would be a month. We were very pessimistic about the entire situation - we thought this was it.
‘So to see him get through, no words can describe it. Some of the children that were on the ward were just waiting to die - we were just one of the lucky ones where everything turned out great.’
The dad-of-two was also full of praise for consultant Giles Peek and the team - who jetted in from London to save his son’s life.
He added: ‘He is one of the very few people who can do this kind of surgery and they brought in people especially to help him do it.
‘We had all the best people in the UK to do it - that was very reassuring. We can’t thank them enough.’
Remarkably, the operation was the third open heart surgery little Carson has had in the last three years.
He initially went under the