‘One-of-a-kind’ girl born with heart outside chest has pioneering surgery

Vanellope Hope Wilkins has a medical history of Matthew I was born With her heart outside her body in 2017.

Vanellope was described as “one of its kind”, which had three operations to put her heart in her chest due to a very rare condition called Octopia Cordis.

The hospital where I was born – Glenfield Hospital in Leicester – says he does not know any other case in the United Kingdom where the child survived.

Now seven years, Vanellope has undergone a leading surgery to rebuild a protective cage around her heart – using her ribs.

The BBC was given exclusively to the theater, when the operation was held at the East Midlands Center, the moral heart, based in Leicester Royal Hospital, last Wednesday.

Warning: This story contains a picture of surgery

It is early in the morning outside the theater, and a team of specialized medical experts gather to surround the unprecedented surgery.

Vanellope still has any bone, leaving her heart covered with a thin layer of skin.

Surgeons have reached a plan to use their ribs to form a protective cage in her chest.

Nitin Patroudhan was one of the 50 -year -old medical team at Vanellpe on November 22.

Now it is scheduled to play a leading role again in surgery, which has not been previously performed before.

He says, “I was lying if I said that I did not feel nervous.” “But after you have been in this profession for many years, you are already looking forward to it because you are at the end of the day, you are doing something that would change the life of someone.”

He recalls how “everything is unknown” when Vanilop was born, because no one in the country dealt with a similar case.

A handful of children in the United States also survived this situation.

Coldis affects outside the term a few cases in a million births – Vanilop has been given an opportunity to survive less than 10 %.

But she challenged those difficulties and allowed her at home 14 months in the hospital.

Since then, Vanellope has been forced to wear a pillar around her chest to protect her heart.

It has complex medical needs, which require individual care, 24 hours a day. It is autism and non -verbal.

My mother, Naomi Vendley, 39, who lives in Clifton, Nutingham, described her daughter as a “happy thing” who “brings a lot of joy and a lot of happiness.”

“This makes me very proud of seeing how much it has reached how much it is overcome and what it is achieving. It is a real journey of strength and courage … it’s very courage.”

Her daughter is having to kiss her daughter, goodbye at the stage of the theater, and it is difficult and the flow of tears.

“A lot of anxiety, a lot of anxiety and a lot of feelings,” she says. “For me, the biggest fear is to deliver it and not restore it.”

The team that awaits the theater includes specialists from the Ethnic Heart Center, Leicester Children’s Hospital and visiting heart surgeon from the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Ethnic Heart Surgeon, IKENNA OMEJE, works on Vanellop just 50 minutes after her birth.

He remembers that there is a lot of “head scratching” among the surgeons, because the condition was very rare.

“It was exciting to everyone because it was something we haven’t seen before. So I made news, not only inside the United Kingdom, but all over the world,” he says.

The current procedure explains, indicating a three -dimensional examination of the Vanellope chest, and describes how her heart has been associated with a thin layer of skin that protects it.

He admits that his chapter is “risky”.

“You can destroy the bowl trying to enter the chest cavity,” he said.

Now at the age of seven, the surgeons decided that Vanellop had reached the appropriate era to perform a restorative surgery to form a permanent structure around her heart.

Vanellope is first placed on the deviating machine, which temporarily takes the functions of the heart and lungs.

This allows her heart to deviate, allowing a “very difficult” procedure to separate part of her heart – the right ventricular outer system – and pulmonary artery in terms of holding her skin.

After that, a few dual -tail bone occurs, which includes breaking Vanellop ribs on both sides to move them in order to create a protective cage around its heart.

The team says that the implementation of all procedures at one time, on a patient suffering from Cordes outside the story, has not been done in this country before.

The very complex procedure lasts more than nine hours. This is successful. Surgeons are happy.

Mr. Omeje is cheerful because he says, “He went much better than we expected.”

He describes how he examined X -rays of Vanylop’s chest after the operation, describing it as “really beautiful”.

Mr. Umee Vanilop described as “one of its kind” and explained how to fulfill everything is going well.

He says: “The best satisfaction that we derive from this is when you get a text message from my mother to say,” Thank you, amazing comrades. ”

“I personally think, I just did my job, but that made a difference for someone and this is very satisfactory.”

Vanellope is transferred to the children’s intensive care unit for children and will spend some time in the hospital in recovery.

After a few weeks, you will be able to take off her protective brand and will not require any other surgery in the future.

Her mother is called “amazing”, and she says that she cannot wait to move her home to her older brothers and her little sister.

She looks at the future, she hopes that this surgery will improve “the quality of life really really in Vanellop”.

Naomi says this time, she is ready for a long journey forward.

“when [Vanellope] I was born afraid. It was very frightening for me, but this time I am ready.

“We got this,” she added.

Get the leading newsletter with all the addresses you need to start today. Subscribe here.