Baby undergoes heart surgery at just 48 hours after birth

Medical Celia Hoffman
http://stocknewsusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/^9D30F40333CF459E79B802E7B980B688F3DF2C38CC2F41A2C6^pimgpsh_fullsize_distr.jpg

A baby boy recently received a handmade heart after having cardiac surgery at just 48 hours old.

The boy, Vinnie Holliday from Moseley, Birmingham received a bad diagnostic, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), while he was still in his mother’s womb.

HLHS is a rare syndrome which makes babies be born, November 7 in Vinnie’s case, without half of the heart. Even if the surgeons struggled to save him and rewire his organ, in a surgery just two days after birth, they are not very optimistic about his survival chances.

His mother, Claire, 36 years old, however, is very happy and optimistic about his progress as he spent only three weeks of recovery in the hospital. She and her husband Ben stated:

“It’s been absolutely amazing. We’ve loved every second and you would never know there was anything wrong with unless you the scar down his chest. I take pictures every day and am focusing on building memories, we don’t think about tomorrow. I’m getting no sleep but I just don’t care because I never thought we’d have him.”

They found the tragic HLHS diagnostic when Claire was 20 week into the pregnancy. As she considered the three options available to her, termination, palliative care or open heart surgery, she chose to keep him alive and try to make anything that will allow him to continue living.

Doctors are unsure why Vinnie was born with just half a heart but believe it may run in the family as Mrs. Holliday’s brother passed within just a few days of being born as a result of the same condition.