Alternative Therapies

Doctors performed corrective surgery on a baby born with his heart outside his chest, using a piece of Gore-Tex fabric to make the repairs. Naseem Hasni underwent surgery for six hours, to put his heart inside his chest, hours after being delivered by Caesarean section on Oct. 31 at Holtz Children’s Hospital at Miami.

The baby remained in critical but stable condition, and doctors said that he will most likely lead a normal life.

Dr. Eliot Rosenkranz, a cardiothoracic surgeon said, “He’s not going to be able to play certain kinds of sports where a blow to the sternum to you and me wouldn’t be a problem, but in him it would be. So I think some competitive sports are going to be out, but he’s going to be able to participate in other sorts of activities”.

The baby was born with an extremely rare congenital defect, called ectopia cordis, in which the heart grows outside the body and the chest wall and sternum are not developed. This condition occurs 5.5 to 7.9 times per 1 million live births, and the survival rate after surgery is less than 50 percent.

Naseem will be fitted with a protective plastic to wear over his chest in a few weeks. It is hoped that when he is about 6 months, doctors will graft pieces of his own ribs across his chest to create a sternum, or breastbone.