A baby boy born with his heart on the outside of his chest has stunned doctors by surviving into his sixth day.
The child stunned medics to overcome the odds despite suffering from ectopia cordis – an incredibly rare heart condition.
The miracle tot’s parents have launched a desperate appeal to help him live longer after he was born in Uttar Pradesh state on Wednesday.
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Although the chances of him surviving past his third day was less than one in a million, the as-yet-unnamed tot is in need of private health care and a vital but expensive operation.
But parents Priyanka, 24, and Nirbhay Pal, 31, earn less than £3 a day and have no way of funding the treatment required for their first child.
Dad Nirbhay said: “The doctors said we should go to a private hospital and get surgery done.
“But I am a poor man. We can barely afford two square meals a day. I don’t know what to do. We are hoping that the government will help us.”
Ectopia cordis can cause the heart to protrude anywhere from the neck to the lower abdomen, and affects as few as eight in every one million births.
Unfortunately, 90 per cent of these are either stillborn or dying within three days.
