Baby Born with Heart OUTSIDE of her Chest Saved

AFRIK UPDATE

   

Audrina Cardenas was born in October with a rare congenital disease called ectopia cordis, where her heart formed outside the chest. 

The disease affects only one in eight million and nine out of 10 sufferers are stillborn or die within three days.

But on Wednesday, the three-and-a-half-month-old defied the odds when she was discharged from Texas Children's Hospital in Houston and taken home by her mother Ashley.

On October 15, Ms Cardenas gave birth via caesarian section the next day her daughter was whisked away for heart surgery. 

Dr Larry Hollier, chief of plastic surgery at the hospital, said: 'Once the cardiac surgeons were finished operating on Audrina, the plastic surgery team played a pivotal role in completing this surgery as we were responsible for covering her heart beneath her skin and muscle.'

                              

Five weeks later doctors declared the little girl was out of the woods and yesterday she was finally allowed home after they said she was 'doing very well.'

But the infant isn’t in the clear yet – surgeons said that she’ll need more surgeries in coming years to repair defects in her heart.