Warning graphic image: Three-year-old Carson Ayre’s chest was left open for FIVE DAYS after the miracle procedure
Family: Little Carson with mum Danicka and dad Luke (Photo Credit: SWNS)
A toddler’s heart can be seen beating through his open chest after doctors performed a miracle operation to save his life.
Surgeons battled for ten hours to perform the complex surgery on three-year-old Carson Ayre, who was born with his heart BACK-TO-FRONT.
The youngster had transposition of the great arteries, an extremely rare and life-threatening deformity, which would have resulted in heart failure.
The serious condition meant his heart’s chambers and the veins and arteries which carry the blood were all the wrong way around.
A team of experts tirelessly worked at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital to FLIP the major organ back the right way round during a pioneering procedure three weeks ago.
They then left the toddler’s chest open for five days to allow the swelling on his heart to go down.
Parents Danicka, 27, and Luke, 25, were able to watch and made an incredible video of their son’s heart beating through the hole in his chest while they maintained a bedside vigil.
Warning: This video contains graphic footage which some viewers may find distressing
Today, the couple, who live in Carlton, Notts., thanked experts for giving saving their toddlers life.
Luke, who works as a care assistant in a nursing home, said: “We’re very proud. He’s absolutely shocked us.
“He was out [of hospital] in two weeks when they said it would be a month. We were very pessimistic about the entire situation – we thought this was it.
“So to see him get through, no words can describe it. Some of the children that were on the ward were just waiting to die – we were just one of the lucky ones where everything turned out great.”
The dad-of-two was also full of praise for consultant Giles Peek and the team – who jetted in from London to save his son’s life.
He added: “He is one of the very few people who can do this kind of surgery and they brought in people especially to help him do it.
“We had all the best people in the UK to do it – that was very reassuring. We can’t thank them enough.”
Open heart: Carson recovers in hospital (Photo Credit: SWNS)
Remarkably, the operation was the THIRD open heart surgery little Carson has had in the last three years.He initially went under the knife just weeks after he was born and then had a pacemaker fitter when he was just nine-months-old.
And the toddler finally underwent the corrective surgery three weeks ago – with his delighted parents able to sit by his bedside 10 hours after the operation.
Mr Peek, a consultant surgeon at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital, described the operation as one of the rarest they do.
He said: “Carson had one of the most complicated heart conditions and the operation, which we call a double switch, is one of the most complex operations that we do.
“There are 153 operations that we do and this is one of the rarest.
“I’m very pleased with him, he’s done very well. With any major heart operation we don’t know what’s going to happen but we’re very pleased with how well he’s done so far.
“It’s wonderful when the children do well and it’s soul destroying when they don’t.”
