The newborn breathed his last while a team of cardiologists led by Dr Ramesh Koirala was carrying out the surgery to place the heart inside his body on Monday, Prakash Karki, a relative, confirmed.
Following the referral by the BP Koirala Institute of Health Science (BPKIHS), the family had rushed the baby to Kathmandu from Dharan and admitted to Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center on Sunday, according to Karki.
Immediately after the admission, the team of cardiologists had begun a surgical operation on the baby. He lived only for three days.
Shruti Karki (Dahal), 22, of Baniyani-4, Jhapa, had given birth to the baby boy at BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) in Dharan, Sunsari district on Saturday morning. The newborn's heart was outside the body, but all the other organs are in a normal condition, according to doctors said.
The weight of the baby at birth was 2.4 kg.
The doctors said such case is considered rare in medical science and termed it the first known such case in the country. One in 100,000 babies may have this rare condition, which is known as ectopic heart in medical terminology, according to child specialist and chief of the pediatrics department Dr Gauri Shankar Shah.
"In such cases, it is usually a portion of the body that is outside, but this baby was born with the heart entirely outside," he said.
Survival of such babies is rare, although heart is placed inside the body through surgery, according to doctors.
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