November 27, 2006: Heart outside

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It's another Neatorama-Cellar IotD image of the week.



Michelle Hasni, in late pregnancy, sensed there was a problem -- her unborn baby seemed to be hiccupping constantly. But when docs did an ultrasound, they found something much worse than the hiccupping... the baby's heart was located on the outside of its body. Beating away normally, but in the wrong place.

And then while docs tried to figure out how to best prepare to birth this youngster, to give it the best chance of survival, little Naseem decided it was time to arrive, two weeks early. He was born by Caesarean section Oct. 31.

A few days ago, he went for the six hour surgery to put the heart back inside his chest cavity. They literally covered it with Gore-Tex, then with a layer of his own skin, and then slowly eased it in.

The surgery was successful and Naseem will likely go home for Christmas.



Yahoo story with slideshow

ABC News story

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