So precious...first baby to survive birth with heart outside of body
A BABY girl has become the first child in Britain to survive being born with her heart on the outside of her body.
Battling Vanellope Hope Wilkins has defied the expectations of doctors by pulling through a condition so rare it affects only five to eight babies in every million.
The condition, ectopia cordis, was discovered during a scan nine weeks into the pregnancy and her parents were shattered to be told a termination was the only option.
But the couple, Naomi Findlay and Dean Wilkins, defied medical advice and decided to let the pregnancy go ahead come what may.
Mum-of-two Naomi, 31, of Bulwell, Nottingham, said: “All the way through it was, ‘the chances of survival are next to none, we can offer counselling’, things like that.
Joyful
“In the end I just said that termination was not an option for me. If it was to happen naturally, then so be it.”
Vanellope, originally due to be born on Christmas Eve, was delivered by Caesarean section three weeks ago with her heart and part of her stomach growing outside her body.
Now Vanellope, named after the feisty heroine in animated children’s film Wreck-It Ralph, has survived not only birth but three operations.
Experts, including a consultant cardiologist, said they do not know of another case in Britain where a baby has survived this ordeal.
Dad Dean, 43, a builder, said: “What they said was, ‘when the baby is born she’s got to be able to breathe in our oxygen’. Twenty minutes went by and she was still shouting her head off. It made us so joyful and teary.”
Around 50 staff were involved in the birth at Leicester’s Glenfield hospital, in which the baby was immediately wrapped in a sterile plastic bag and taken to an anaesthetic room.
In the first operation, special lines were inserted into the blood vessels in her umbilical cord to give fluids and medications to support her heart.
Seven days later, her chest was opened up to create space for the heart to fit back inside her body.
Over two weeks the heart naturally moved back due to gravity, allowing staff to take skin from under her arms and join in the middle of her body.
Surgeons had created a mesh which protected the heart, as Vanellope did not have ribs or a sternum.
The medics said that apart from the heart condition, Vanellope seemed “essentially normal” and were hopeful she will progress well.