This is the name of the congenital birth defect which caused Naseem Hasni's heart to be outside his chest. He was born on October 31, 2006 and has been at a Miami children's hospital ever since. (Miami Herald)On Wednesday, the first of many corrective surgeries took place to try to correct the defect. Now, a thin film along with a thin membrane of his own skin cover his beating heart. Soon, he will be fitted with a plastic chest to protect the heart. It's optimistic, but Naseem may return home by the end of December in time for the holidays.
This defect is so rare that it occurs in only eight in one million babies. Most are stillborn or do not survive the corrective surgery. One can beat the odds, however. I found the story below about Christopher Wall who was born in 1975. Chris set the record for living the longest with the heart outside the chest. This is from a TV broadcast in 1998 and the piece is about 8 minutes long. Very inspiring story.
11 comments:
WOW! Just randomly blogging and found yours. What a wonderful story. Thanks for putting it up!!
Hey Dr. A--stopping by on my morning blogrun and I'm fascinated by the ectopia cordis story, but I can't find a link for the piece on Chris Wall. You refer to it as "below" but there ain't nothin' there. Am I missing something?
TPA, there should be a You Tube frame there showing the TV clip. I just tried it again and it's working.
Let me know if you're not seeing a You Tube frame at the bottom of this post. Thanks.
An eye-opener that. Thanks Dr. A!
Amazing story. Thank you for sharing.
Amazing! Took almost an hour to watch the whole feed on dial-up but it was worth it. Thanks for finding that story. I wonder how he is now? :)
Glad you enjoyed it. Yeesh! An hour download for dial-up? Wow!
Thanks for hunting that down. It is certainly a fascinating story!
Yep.. hello 56 kbps. *wink* Glad there's such a thing as multi-tasking (which is how i found your blog in the first place) and lots of homework! Will get around to reading more of your stuff. Thanks again.
I am Michelle Hasni the mother of Naseem photo at top.
i want to know if anyone can put me in touch with the Wall family.
mh73gh76@yahoo.com
It a wonderful story. I lost my child in March 2006 to infection due to ectopia cordis. We knocked at many doors of hospitals to preform surgery but re-peatedly turned down. We decided to share our lives together at home till loving her through her last moments. I am pleased to see that someone gave this family and child a chance and he beat the odds. Very touching.
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