Medics perform first in world replacement of child's heart valve without opening chest

The boy was diagnosed earlier with cerebral palsy and Ebstein's anomaly, a rare congenial heart condition stopping normal blood flow. 

'He was only seven months old when he lost consciousness for the first time,' his father Pavel told Russian 1TV channel. 'I remember coming back home, my wife weeping with him in her arms. 

'We managed to bring him back to his senses, but then the same happened again, and again. 

'I would not wish this on anyone.'

The father - holding Ivan after the successful procedure - said: 'Ivan went through several open heart surgeries by the age of 5.'

When he was still a baby, surgeons in Kemerovo stopped his heart and replaced his dysfunctional valve with an artificial one.A year later his condition deteriorated once more because of problems with the artificial valve, and another open-heart surgery was carried out, this time at Tomsk Institute of Cardiology. 

Three years later the artificial valve stopped working again.

Ivan Svorob, 5 with father Pavel. Pictures: 1TV Channel

Medics feared another open heart surgery could become fatal for the boy. The Tomsk institute's spokeswoman Liudmila Nasonova said: 'It could have been his fourth major surgical intervention. 

'Open heart surgeries are incredibly hard for parents as the heart has to be stopped, an artificial blood system has to be installed.

'The heart is quite literally in the surgeon's hands. 

'The stress for any organism is colossal.'

The Tomsk surgeons decided to undertake the world's first  endovascular implantation of a tricuspid heart valve, when a biological prosthesis is implanted through a peripheral vein. 

The Tomsk surgeons decided to undertake the world's first  endovascular implantation of a tricuspid heart valve, when a biological prosthesis is implanted through a peripheral vein. Pictures: 1TV Channel, Tomsk Institute of Cardiology

'I didn't cry,' the brave red-haired boy told TV journalists. 

Nasonova described the surgery as 'state of the art', and said the new artificial valve was inserted through a vein less than seve millimetres in diameter.

The operation was performed under surgeon Viktor Varvarenko using a 3D echocardiographic control. 

Ivan is still in a therapy ward at the hospital, but doctors say he is 'doing well' and expect him to be back home within several days.

He will soon turn six, but because of the number of surgeries he went through, he only weighs 14 kg. 

It didn't stop him smiling at doctors and the camera, and exploring hospital corridors holding his father's hand. 

'I didn't cry,' the brave red-haired boy told TV journalists. Pictures: 1TV Channel