UK surgeons use cow parts to save baby’s life

A newborn baby with a rare heart condition has made an amazing recovery after British doctors, in a pioneering surgery, used parts of a cow heart to save his life.

Noa Gwilym Pritchard was born on 10 February this year with Holt-Oram syndrome, a genetic diseases that affects just one person in 100,000.

People with the syndrome have abnormally developed bones in their upper limbs and often suffer cardiac problems. Just days after being born, the baby was operated on at Alder Hey Hospital near Liverpool.

The surgeons at the hospital repaired Noa's heart with "both human and bovine parts" and his heart is now "near perfect," the Cambrian News reported.

Eight-month-old Noa is now "flourishing", according to his mother, Elen Pritchard, a former geography teacher.

"It has become obvious that it is the rare syndrome Holt-Oram which is the cause of Noa's problems with his arms and his heart," Elen said paper.

"Operations on his arms will come, but we have learnt from this little boy that suffering is short-lived and that life and the blessing of having him is long-lasting."

Cow heart valves are occasionally used by surgeons as they have a similar tissue physiology to human valves.