Doctors at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here have successfully operated and placed back the heart of a nine-day-old baby boy who was admitted last week with a very rare congenital anomaly called Ectopia cordis, wherein heart protrudes out of chest.
Cardiothoracic surgeon at the Institute Dr A. K. Bisoi, under whose treatment the child is, said: “A 13-member team worked on the child’s beating heart during the three and a half hour long surgery. The heart was placed successfully in a space created between the chest and the abdomen and the surgeons had to work around other organs including the lungs and the liver to create space for the heart.”
“The child is under observation and we will see how he responds to treatment. We had treated the child for reducing infection and given him clean blood last week. His heart was also isolated with a sterile synthetic patch,” said Dr. Bisoi.
What seems to have worked for the boy is the fact that besides his heart, his other organs were functioning normally.
The child, born on August 25, was brought to AIIMS from Bihar and was exhausted and dehydrated.
