 Vanellope Hope Wilkins, who had her first surgery within an hour of delivery, is believed to be first baby in UK to survive with the extremely rare condition 
 
 A baby girl born with her heart outside her body is believed to be the first in the UK to survive with the extremely rare condition after undergoing three operations, the first within an hour of her birth. At a nine-week scan, Vanellope Hope Wilkins was discovered to have the condition ectopia cordis, with her heart and part of her stomach growing externally. Dean added: "We were advised to have a termination and that the chances of survival were next to none - no-one believed she was going to make it except us." But three weeks after her premature birth, by caesarean section on 22 November, Vanellope, who is named after a Disney princess, has survived three operations at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, to move her heart back inside her chest. Experts, including the consultant cardiologist, have said they do not know of another case in the UK where a baby has survived such a condition. Image copyright Glenfield hospital Image caption Minutes after her birth, Vanellope's chest was covered with a sterile bag to keep her heart moist and reduce the risk of infection 
 
 Within 50 minutes of birth, the baby was undergoing the first of three operations to put her heart back inside the body. I’m glad I stuck to my guns not to terminate. The Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, England, said the infant, now named Vanellope for a Disney character, was born with a rare condition known as ectopia cordis and had been thought to have less than a 10 percent chance of survival. “I had seen one in foetal life around 20 years ago but that pregnancy was ended.” 
 
 
 
 Findlay said all the way through her pregnancy that she was warned the “chances of survival are next to nothing”. I’m glad I stuck to my guns not to terminate though, I’m so glad.” 
 
 
 
 Wilkins said: “I lost hope a few times, if she didn’t move I’d say: ‘Has she moved today?’ and then, the next thing, she’d suddenly move and you’d go: ‘Oh she’s heard me’.” 
 
 
 
 They named their daughter after a character in the film Wreck-it Ralph. Naomi said: "Vanellope in the film is a real fighter and at the end turns into a princess so we thought it was fitting."
– Nine weeks into her pregnancy, Naomi Findlay was told "termination" was the only option. The fetus in her womb was growing a heart—but in a rare case of ectopia cordis, it was outside of the body, as was a portion of the stomach, giving the fetus less than a 10% chance of survival, reports the Guardian. Three weeks after giving birth a month prematurely, however, Findlay, 31, and Dean Wilkins, 43, are the proud parents of a baby girl believed to be the first in the UK to survive such a condition, joining a few others in the US, per the New York Times. Less than an hour after she was delivered via caesarean section on Nov. 22, Vanellope Hope Wilkins went into her first of three surgeries at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital to relocate her heart into her chest. Doctors say she's now doing well, though she remains on a ventilation machine. Getting to this point wasn't easy. After the first surgery, doctors had to wait for Vanellope's chest to grow to make room for the heart. With doctors assisting, the heart eventually moved into a cavity through gravity. Doctors then created a mesh to protect the heart, as Vanellope was born without ribs or a sternum, and in the final surgery, they covered the hole with skin taken from under the infant's arms. "In a way her strength gave me a strength to keep going," Findlay tells the BBC. "No one believed she was going to make it except us," adds Wilkins. "It's beyond a miracle." A pediatric cardiologist says Vanellope "has proved very resilient." The main focus now is to prevent infection, but "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." (Heart surgery saved an unborn child in Canada.)