The Amazing Girl with Heart Outside

Six-year-old Virsaviya Borun has been beating the odds her entire life, having been born with her heart and intestines outside her chest and abdomen.
Virsaviya, a native of Russia who recently moved to South Florida with her mother, suffers from multiple birth defects caused by Pentalogy of Cantrell – a rare congenital condition that occurs in estimated 5.5 in one million live births.
Virsaviya’s heart, which is about the size of a fist, could be seen beating against her abdominal area, protected only by a thin layer of skin.

Her intestines are also outside her body and she has no abdominal muscles or a diaphragm.
‘When I was pregnant, the doctor said she will not survive, that she is going to die,’ the girl’s mother, Dari Borun, told NBC Miami.
Six years later, Virsaviya, who also goes by the biblical name Bathsheba, is a bright and lively girl who enjoys drawing ponies, attends art classes and loves dancing to Beyonce’s songs.
In early 2015, Ms Borun, who has been raising Virsaviya on her own, found a doctor at Boston’s Children’s Hospital willing to treat her rare ailment.
Pentalogy of Cantrell often requires surgery, depending on the severity of the patient’s defects, and could be fatal if left untreated.
Virsaviya is being raised by her mother, Dari Borun
The mother and daughter moved to the US this year to seek medical treatment for the child
Virsaviya is being raised by her mother, Dari Borun (pictured left and right). The mother and daughter moved to the US this year to seek medical treatment for the child
But the medical team in Boston said Virsaviya cannot undergo surgery at the moment because she has high blood pressure in her pulmonary aorta.
The girl will be evaluated again in two years to determine if it would be safe for her to undergo an operation.
Ms Borun has appealed to the public for help, asking for donations to cover her daughter’s medical bills and basic living expenses, saying she has very limited means, being a single mother of a special-needs child with no other family in the US.
The mother and daughter have recently moved from Boston to Hollywood, Florida, because Virsaviya is unable to live in a cold climate.