Baby frozen for four days to fix deadly heart condition

File photo / NZ Herald

A baby who suffered complications after heart surgery made a miraculous recovery after he was frozen for four days.

Doctors in Newcastle, northern England, made the decision to lower 16-week-old Finley Burton's body temperature to 33.4C as he went into junctional ectopic tachycardia - a severe type of heart rhythm - after an operation to repair a large hole in his heart, reported The Sun.

He was cooled with a special blanket filled with chilled air.

Finley's mother Donna Link-Emery, 27, told The Sun: "It was very frightening. We thought we were going to lose him.

"His heart was beating really quickly and we prayed he would survive.

"Amazingly, the freezing process seemed to work and after four days his heart started to maintain a normal rhythm again."

A spokesman for Freeman's Hospital said: "The cooling process helps to slow down the body's metabolic rate and protect all the big organs such as the brain."

- NZ Herald staff