The parents of a baby girl who was born with her heart beating outside her chest have made a desperate plea for help so she can receive life-saving surgery abroad. Little Laraib Zahid was born naturally in in a government-run hospital in Pakistan’s Multan city earlier this month.

The tiny tot seems otherwise healthy – she breathes normally and is active – but doctors are baffled as to why her heart is not inside her body. Her doctors have reassured her parents that her heart is functioning normally, but she urgently needs an operation to place it inside her body.


Mum, Shaista Zahida, 22, had a complication free birth and no one had predicted baby Laraib would be born with such a rare condition.

Dr Ibrahim Ansari said: “In my long career, I have never seen a newborn with such a rare condition.

“Except the heart being outside her chest, the baby looks normal. She breathes normally and is active. “The baby may survive if paediatric surgeons can operate on her.”

Both Shaista and her husband, Zahid Baloch, 28, a taxi driver, are devastated with their firstborn’s condition and hoping for a miracle that could save her.

Baloch has pleaded for help from the Pakistan government so that his baby can be taken outside the country for a surgery.