Longest survival with heart outside body
- Who
- Christopher Wall
- When
- 13 September 1999
Christopher Wall (USA) (b. 19 August 1975) is the longest known survivor of the condition ectopia cordis, where the heart lies outside the body. The mortality rate is high with most patients not living beyond 48 hours.
Wall currently works for a construction tubing company in Philadelphia.
The condition occurs in 5.5 - 7.9 per one million live births according to the American Heart Association.
Attempts to surgically correct the abnormality in patients have largely been unsuccessful and so in many cases normally soon after a child has been born with the defect, the exposed heart (and abdominal contents) are covered with a silastic prosthesis.
The condition occurs in 5.5 - 7.9 per one million live births according to the American Heart Association.
Attempts to surgically correct the abnormality in patients have largely been unsuccessful and so in many cases normally soon after a child has been born with the defect, the exposed heart (and abdominal contents) are covered with a silastic prosthesis.