Australian surgeons were the first in the world to operate on a baby who was born with a malformed heart completely outside its body, The Canberra Times reported on this day in 1990.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, cardiac surgeons repaired the heart of Daniel Wengier and placed it within a rebuilt chest cavity that was also enlarged.
The highly-complicated operation lasted seven hours.
Roger Mee, head of the surgical team, said the doctors had never tried to correct and adjust internal heart defects, or tried to remedy an external, or ectopic heart, in one operation.
"We can't claim Daniel is out of the woods yet, but we are very pleased with his progress so far," he said.
Daniel's parents, Alex Wengier, 40, and American-born Rita Thomas, 38, of Balwyn, said the radical operation was Daniel's only chance of survival.
"It was a little devastating - but I just knew we had to go to the end and see how it worked out," Ms Thomas said. "Now we are very happy."
The surgeons found out about Daniel's heart early in the pregnancy during an ultrasound examination and began planning the operation, with little information on how to practically carry it out. "It was planned in theory," Mee said.
