Teenager born with heart outside rib cage leads normal life
24 Oct 2015
Arpit Gohil who is 18 years old was born with a rare condition that left his heart outside of his rib cage. With no protection of his rib cage, Arpit's heart is only separated from the outside of his body by a thin layer of skin.
He was not expected to live long, his family was told by doctors that they should not expect him to live beyond infancy. Now doctors call him a medical miracle, saying that even a slight bump could kill him.
The condition called Pentalogy of Cantrell, is a congenital birth defect, according to Rarediseases.org that causes vital internal organs to form outside of the body. The severity of the condition varies, but in particularly bad cases it causes ectopia cordis, where the heart is completely or partially outside of the thoracic cavity.
Despite the risks Arpit, who was born and lives in India, has had a fairly active childhood climbing trees, and driving tractors on the family farm.
''I can do everything like a normal person and don't have any trouble with my jobs on the farm,'' he says.
Arpit works with his father in the farms and plays cricket with his friends. About 156 such cases have been reported from across the world, so far.
