A baby girl who was born with her heart and stomach outside her body is believed to be the first in the U.K. to survive the rare condition.
Vanellope Hope Wilkins, born ectopia cordis, underwent several surgeries to save her life, one of which happened within the first hour of her being born this past November, The Guardian reports.
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The condition was discovered when mother Naomi Findlay received a scan at nine weeks. That’s when Findlay and her husband Dean Wilkins – who are from Bulwell, Nottinghamshire – were advised by doctors to terminate the pregnancy as it was the only option.
At first, the parents didn’t believe Vanellope would have a chance at life.
“When we did the research, we just couldn’t physically look because the condition came with so many problems,” Findlay told The Guardian.
“We still didn’t know what we were looking at when we saw the scan — it looked like a little hamster with a hat on,” Wilkins added.
Ultimately, the couple decided against termination, The Guardian says.
Vanellope was born through C-section prematurely on Nov. 22 and underwent three operations at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, over a three wee period to put her heart inside her chest.
Wilkins and Findlay were told the first 10 minutes after birth would be the most important as her ability to breathe would be essential. But when Vanellope came out crying, the parents felt relief.
“She came out kicking and screaming, she did,” Wilkins told Reuters.
“It was a beautiful moment, wasn’t it?” Findlay said. “Absolutely beautiful. If you saw her when she was first born, to where she is now and what they’ve done…”
“It’s beyond a miracle, isn’t it?” Wilkins added.
After the first surgery, which took place just 50 minutes after her birth, Vanellope was transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit where she stayed for several weeks. This was to make sure she was strong enough for her heart to fully be placed back in her chest and covered with her skin.
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The second surgery involved opening her chest up slightly more to create the space to allow her heart to fit back in. and over two weeks, her heart naturally made its way into her chest thanks to gravity.
The last operation was to take the skin from under her arms and put it in the middle of her body. To avoid having the skin grow directly onto her heart, a mesh was placed over the heart to protect it, as she did not have ribs or a sternum.
Today, Vanellope is hooked up to a ventilation system as her organs find space within her chest, The Guardian says.
“Some mums still terminate and if we can get out there that there is a hope, and that it can be done, then it’s giving all those mums out there a chance,” Wilkins said to The Guardian.
While Vanellope may be U.K.’s first, another child by the name of Audrina Cardenas was born with the same condition in 2012, ABC News reports.
Cardenas underwent one six-hour surgery at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston to put her heart back into her chest and survived.
According to ABC News, eight babies out of every million are born with the condition and 90 per cent of the eight are either stillborn or die within the first three days of life.
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