Baby Born With Heart Outside Body | Miracle Babies Born Alive Story And Pictures
Doctors in China are battling to save a baby born with his heart growing on the outside of his body.
Two-month-old Xin Xin has only a thin membrane covering his heart which can be clearly seen beating outside his stomach.
His parents brought him to Xin Qiao Hospital, in Chongqing, and surgeons are now working out how best to treat him.
Doctor Zhang Yuping, vice director of hospital's paediatrics department, said: "It's a very rare case. His heart is so exposed that the slightest knock or contact could be fatal."
The little boy's parents are migrant workers in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province, who rushed back home to seek medical help after their baby was born.
"We didn't believe it when doctors told us the black patch on our son's belly was his heart until we saw it beating," said the father, Luo Rongyun.
Surgeons have come up with a number of different ideas for how best to treat Xin Xin but each has been discarded over fears he might not survive.
They now plan to wait until he is three months old when most of his organs will have developed more and he should be strong enough for surgery.