Baby Girl Born with Heart Outside Body Survives

A baby girl born with her heart outside the body is making history for fighting and surviving the rare condition.

Five-week-old Audrina Cardenes, born with ectopia cordis, is recovering fast after receiving a successful heart surgery at Texas Children's Heart Center, shortly after her birth Oct.15.

Ectopia cordis is a rare congenital heart defect where a baby's heart develops fully or partially outside the chest. According to health experts, only eight out of one million babies are affected with the disorder. Survival rates are very low and in a majority of the cases, babies are stillborn or die shortly, or within days after birth.

"I have only seen this condition a few times in my career and these are always very tricky cases; in fact, many of these babies do not survive," Dr. Charles D. Fraser, surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital, said in a news release.

"If Audrina would not have been referred to a facility like ours that could provide this full spectrum of care from managing her in-utero to immediate heart surgery after birth, she would not be here today. Audrina is a true fighter and we are so excited that this was a good outcome."

During the six-hour open heart surgery, surgeons at Texas Children's Hospital reconstructed the little girl's chest cavity to accommodate one-third of her heart located outside her body.

Doctors had diagnosed the condition when Audrina was in her mom Ashley Cardenas' womb. Even though 16-month pregnant Cardenas was given full freedom to abort the baby, she chose to give birth and repair the defect through surgery after the baby's birth.

"After my doctors explained just how sick my baby was and what options I had, it didn't matter how scared I was, I knew I had to do anything possible to save my daughter's life," Cardenas said.

Cardenas gave birth to Audrina Oct.15 through cesarean section. Shortly after birth, baby Audrina underwent successful heart surgery.

"Despite Audrina's misplaced heart, she was born with no other syndromes or genetic conditions that would cause additional stress or complications on her heart," said Dr. Carolyn Altman, pediatric cardiologist at Texas Children's Hospital. "Although her future prognosis is uncertain, Audrina is currently thriving and making progress each day."