Chanel Murrish has become Britain's youngest patient ever to undergo the procedure

Apr 7, 2014 08:10 GMT  ·  By
Baby Chanel Murrish is Britain's youngest patient to undergo open heart surgery
   Baby Chanel Murrish is Britain's youngest patient to undergo open heart surgery

Newborn baby Chanel Murrish has had open heart surgery just minutes after being born and has thus become Britain's youngest patient ever to undergo the procedure.

The tiny baby from Seaham, County Durham, developed a rare heart condition in the womb, and doctors said her chances of survival were very slim. They even recommended her parents Fay and Micheal Murrish to terminate the pregnancy on two occasions, but they refused to do that and decided to keep the baby.

Despite the low chances of survival, Fay and her husband refused to give up on their daughter after feeling her kicking in the womb. An ultrasound scan Fay had during the pregnancy showed the baby giving a thumbs-up, and for them this was the second sign that everything was going to be OK.

“Chanel has proved she is determined to live. I’m so proud of her. The doctors say one in three million babies are at risk of the same condition,” Fay said, according to Daily Mail.

Minutes after being born at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, the little girl underwent the first surgery, in which medics placed a stent in her heart. Seven days later, surgeons performed a second operation for a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which meant that only one side of her heart was able to beat properly.

Apparently, the 24-year-old mother had an unproblematic pregnancy until her 20-week scan at Sunderland Hospital. That's when she was told of her baby’s rare heart condition.

The couple were then referred to a specialist at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, who explained that the baby would need a series of risky operations after birth, with only a 50/50 chance of surviving the first one.

“Even then her life expectancy would only be to young adulthood and she would eventually need a heart transplant,” Fay recalls of what the doctors told her.

Later in the pregnancy, doctors also found problems with the baby's heart blood flow and offered the couple several options: terminate the pregnancy immediately, give birth naturally and let the infant die peacefully, or go through with the series of surgeries. They chose the last option.

Fay gave birth to Chanel by caesarian, and the brave young girl survived not only her first surgery, but also the second seven-hour operation, one week later.

Now five weeks old, Chanel is at home with her family, recovering from the two rounds of operations, and her parents are confident they took the right decision by refusing to give up on her.