Baby born with heart outside her body expected to survive
A newborn baby girl has become the first in the UK to survive being born with her heart outside of her chest.
Vanellope Hope was born prematurely in Leicester on November 22 with a rare congenital condition leaving her heart and part of her stomach outside her body.
She had three surgeries to have the organ put back inside and cover it with skin and is now recovering in hospital.
"She has a long way to go, but so far at least she now has a chance at a future," Dr Nick Moore, from Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, said.
Vanellope's mother Naomi Findlay said she had "prepared for the worst" before the surgery.
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"I had brought an outfit to hospital that she could wear if she died," she said.
"I genuinely didn't think my baby would survive, but the staff at Glenfield have been amazing."
Vanellope is the first baby to survive the operation in the UK.
Doctors are now planning another surgery to give the newborn a breast bone and could 3D print one to fit.
Only eight in one million babies are born with Venellope's condition, ectopia cordis.
Of those eight, 90 per cent are either stillborn or die within the first three days of life.
