Vanellope Hope Wilkins was born with her heart outside her body and survived three surgeries, the first having been performed within an hour of her birth.
Three weeks later, the U.K baby is on the road to recovery, CNN reported.
Vanellope was diagnosed with ectopia cordis, a condition that caused her heart and part of her stomach to grow outside her body.
At 16 weeks her stomach had retracted back to the correct position but her heart remained out of place and doctors were not optimistic about her survival.
"There were so many difficulties," said Dr. Frances Bu'Lock, a consultant in pediatric cardiology at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, according to CNN. "The chances against her surviving at that stage was huge."
The baby's parents, Naomi Findlay and Dean Wilkins, refused to give up hope and Vanellope was delivered by caesarean on Nov. 22 with the help of 50 medical professionals.
The first 10 minutes after birth were crucial to her survival and Dean Wilkins said that, after 20 minutes had passed and Vanellope was "still shouting her head off – it made us so joyful and teary," The Independent noted.
It would take three more surgeries to successfully move her heart back into her chest, and doctors had to create an artificial rib cage and sternum, but Vanellope is on the mend.
"I had prepared myself for the worst; that was my way of dealing with it," Findlay said in a statement. "I genuinely didn't think my baby would survive, but the staff at Glenfield have been amazing."
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