Infant with incomplete embryonic development passes away

Jaipur, Nov 13 (UNI) In a rare instance of incomplete embryonic development, a girl child with externally placed heart-ectopia cardia was born in the Tonk district of Rajasthan but could survive only for around 18 hours.

The infant was born to Kailashi Devi of Balkhandia village in the wee hours yesterday. The family was amazed on seeing the baby's heart placed on outside of her chest.

The family immediately rushed to nearby hospital where doctors had referred the infant to the Jaykaylon Paediatric Hospital here.

However, the child was in the critical condition. The doctors at the Paediatric Surgery Department in the child care Centre could do nothing but put her on observation with ventilator support, Dr Chetan Sharma Associate Professor Paediatric Surgery Department said.

Dr Sharma said this was the rarest case of incomplete embryonic development with ectopia-cardia condition and various congenital cardiac defects.

He said due to incomplete embryonic development, the anterior chest bone sternum was absent and subsequently skin cover was also undeveloped in that much area in chest.

"Scope for success of surgery in this case was very poor but doctors did not want to give up and were contemplating pre-surgery diagnostic tests and planning when the child started showing signs of deterioration and soon collapsed around 2130 hrs last night", Dr Sharma said.

UNI