Baby born with heart beating outside chest to receive treatment

A baby girl was born with her heart beating outside of her chest due to an extremely rare medical condition.

Baby Hermlata's disease, ectopia cordis, is a lethal congenital malformation that affects 1 in 1,000,000 births in developed countries.

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"The heart is [normally] covered by bones and skin in the human body, but in this case though, her heart was formed completely during embryonic development, the body wall could not mature properly," Dr. Chaurasiya, the hospital's childcare specialist, told Caters News.

Her mother, Prem Kumari, 22, and father, Arvind Patel, 24, were devastated to find their new born's heart pumping outside of her body after giving natural child birth last week in India.

"After my marriage to Prem Kumari, all my family was happy when we were having our first child," said Patel. "The doctor referred us to a district hospital but the doctors there told us that for treatment we have to take the child outside and her treatment will be very expensive. We had no money."

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But the family of three qualified for a government grant and now Hermlata will be receiving treatment at All India Institute for Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

"I am hopeful that my daughter would now get a life-saving operation and live a healthy life," Patel said.