Mum Premkumari, 22, and her husband Arvind Patel, 24, were told there was some sort of abnormality following the ultrasound scan, but couldn’t afford further tests.
Little Hemlata was given a 50 per cent chance of survival when she was born with Ectopia Cordis – her heart outside the chest thorax.
The tiny fighter has been moved to a specialist facility where medics are preparing to begin a series of operations.
First-time mother Premkumari said: “The ultrasonography report had shown some abnormality in the baby, but we didn’t have enough money to do further tests and find out what the abnormality is all about.
“We never thought that our first child would have to suffer like this.”
Hemlata was born with the rare congenital condition at a state-run hospital in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, on April 5.
She is now awaiting surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi
Father Arvind, a private security guard at the Khajuraho Temples said: “The doctors have told us that they would need to do as many as three surgeries on the baby.
“They told us the chances of her survival is slim, but they are doing their job.
“I know they are doing their job, but I think if I had money, I would have taken her to a private hospital with a better facility.
“The doctors have told us that even after a successful operation, the baby’s heart could be put back inside the frame of the chest.”
This rare medical condition in which the heart is abnormally located either partially or totally outside of the thorax, occurs in 1 in 125,000, local experts said.
Surgeon Dr R.S. Tripathi said: “The heart is 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.
“Keeping in mind the infant’s serious condition, the infant was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi along with a doctor.”
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