See the Amazing Video of an Infant’s Heart Beating Outside Her Body and Hear From the Doctors Who Performed the Live-Saving Surgery

Editor’s note: some video and images below might be considered graphic.

Reaffirming her mother's faith that "there is a reason she is here," an Odessa, Texas, baby is doing well five weeks after being born with her heart partially outside her body, ABC affiliate KTRK reports.

Baby Audrina survived six hours of surgery to place the heart, which protruded from her stomach, back into her chest, according to the station.

"Our family has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving," Audrina's mother, Ashley Cardenas, told KHOU 11.



An ultrasound during the pregnancy revealed the usually fatal condition, called ectopia cordis, but Cardenas said she wanted to see the birth through. The odds were against her. According to Texas Children's Hospital, eight in 1 million babies are affected by ectopia cordis, and 90 percent are stillborn or die within three days.

"I had to come with ... believing in faith that there is a reason she is here," Cardenas told KTRK.

As soon as Cardenas made her decision, a team of cardiovascular, plastic and general surgeons readied for the complicated C-section procedure, Texas Children's Hospital chief surgeon Dr. Charles D. Fraser told KHOU 11. “Audrina is a true fighter and we are so excited that this was a good outcome.”