A baby survives with the vein of a cow

March 7, 2011

According to the newspaper “The Sun” “Little Hannah, with only 28 weeks and one kilo was born with a problem in her little heart. The doctors were realistic and warned the parents that the girl had very little chances of surviving”.

Doctors discovered 20 weeks after she was born that Hannah had a heart problem because one of her veins was not developing properly and so it was sending large amounts of blood to the lungs.

According to the newspaper “Doctors at Southampton General Hospital decided to carry out a pioneering operation in two phases. When Hannah and her sister Lauren, were born in September, the doctors reduced the flow of blood from the baby. Months later, when little was strong enough to overcome a second operation, they cut the jugular vein of a cow and used it to reconstruct the pulmonary artery of the child”.

Now, little Hannah has five months and became the youngest baby in the UK to undergo an operation like this, and now she can return home any time.

Charlotte, the girl’s mother said to the newspaper that “It’s really amazing to think that we used the vein of a cow to keep our daughter alive”.