A 22-day-old baby who underwent rare surgery in an Indian hospital after being born with his heart outside his body has died, a report said on Wednesday.
The unnamed boy from the eastern state of Bihar was operated on earlier this month for complete thoracic ectopia cordis, a rare condition when a child is born with the heart in an abnormal position.
”The baby developed pneumonia and suffered multiple organ failure” that caused his death, an unnamed doctor from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Born to labourer parents, the infant was suffering from a blood infection after his parents brought him to the hospital by train on August 28 wrapped in a thin towel to cover the heart.
”He had developed infection by then as he was exposed to outside elements during his night-long train journey,” the doctor said.
Experts treating the boy had described the three-and-half-hour surgery as a challenge as they had had to push aside the baby’s lungs and liver to make space for the heart while ensuring that it continued to beat normally once inside the body.
After surgery, the baby was transferred to the post-operative care where he was initially reported to be in a stable but critical condition. — AFP
