Modern medicine is a wondrous, barely comprehensible thing.
It saves those who in past years would have had no hope of survival, improves the quality of life for those suffering from illnesses and conditions. We have come a long way in recent history, though there is still much road left to be traveled, and researchers work tirelessly every day in their attempts to make break throughs that will lead to the eradication of yet more diseases, and more effective treatments of others.
As such, we are currently witnessing a period of 'world firsts' in the medicinal sphere. Recently, the first successful human head transplant took place, and scientific breakthroughs are coming thick and fast as we move further into the 21st century.
One of the tragedies of our modern lives lies in the fact that babies are still being born with desperate conditions and illnesses, and many children still die soon after birth.
There is a certain tragedy in a life being snuffed out so cruelly before one has the opportunity to live properly. Modern medicine has given hope to many whose children are born with congenital problems and now a baby born with an incredibly rare issue that affects just a few births in a million had become the beneficiary of the marvels of science.
Vanellope Hope Wilkins was delivered three weeks ago and born with no breastbone, meaning that her heart was outside of her body.
The issue is extremely rare, and doctors say they do not know of another case in the United Kingdom, where the baby was born.
Vanellope's parents were advised to terminate the pregnancy, writes the BBC, and they had been told that their baby had just a 10 percent chance of survival. As her father recalls;
"We were holding our breath, waiting for her to take her first breath. We didn’t dare breathe until she took her first breath.
"When she cried, we cried. Twenty minutes went by and she was still shouting her head off — it made us so joyful and teary."
Vanellope had been due to be born on Christmas eve, though arrived a little early via caesarean section. Her first surgery saw 50 medics on standby as staff inserted a breathing tube into her heart. The baby was just 50 minutes old.
Just a matter of days later, Vanellope underwent a second procedure, which saw doctors open her chest to clear space for her heart, which subsequently settled into her chest over the following weeks.
Her parents describe her lovingly as;
"A real fighter.
"It was a real shock when the ultrasound showed that her heart was outside her chest and scary because we didn't know what would happen."
The most recent surgery saw the baby's own skin used to cover the hole in her chest. Consultant paediatric cardiologist Frances Bu'Lock described Vanellope's journey thus far;
"Before she was born things looked very bleak but now they are quite a lot better - Vanellope is doing really well and has proved very resilient.
"In the future we may be able to put in some internal bony protection for her heart - perhaps using 3D printing or something organic that would grow with her."
A story of incredible resistance, and here's hoping that Vanellope continues her remarkable recovery.
