Baby born healthy after heart surgery in mother's uterus

A healthy baby was born on Wednesday morning having previously undergone heart surgery while still in its mother's uterus at Xin Hua Hospital, which is affiliated with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. The baby weighs 3,980 grams and is very healthy, reports thepaper.cn.

After having an echocardiogram, the condition of the baby is better than what the doctors expected. No further heart surgery of treatment is needed at the present time.

The baby had been diagnosed in utero with severe aortic stenosis, which can lead to left ventricular dysplasia syndrome, a potentially fatal condition. In an effort to save the baby's life, surgeons performed the complex surgery required to improve the aortic blood flow, which helped to support the development of the left ventricle.

The surgery on July 17 marked the first time in Asia that an aortic valve repair was undertaken on a baby in the mother's uterus.