Baby girl born with heart beating outside chest

HOUSTON (KTRK, TEXAS CHILDRENS HOSPITAL) - THE VIDEO WITH THIS STORY CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND DISTURBING DUE TO THE GRAPHIC NATURE. WATCH IT AT YOUR DISCRETION.

A baby born with one-third of her heart beating outside her chest is on the mend.

Doctors in Houston managed to rebuild the infant's chest and save her life. And now, this will be a special Thanksgiving for the tiny baby's grateful mother.

Taking note of her baby's tiny size, Ashley Cardenas saw her newborn daughter for the first time after extraordinary surgery to put her baby's heart back inside her chest. 

Little Audrina was born with heart lying on her stomach -- beating outside her body. It was a stunning thing to see, even for the heart surgeons there to repair it.

"It's like the heart was kind of pinched in the middle," said Dr. Charles Fraser, surgeon-in-chief at Houston's Texas Children's Hospital.

This condition  was picked up on an ultrasound, and is usually fatal.  But Ashley made the difficult decision to continue the pregnancy and pray for her baby's healing.

"I had to come with believing in Him, believing in faith -- that there is a reason she is here," said Ashley.

In a six-hour surgery, Texas Children's heart surgeons and plastic surgeons reconstructed the baby's chest to make space for the heart inside and gently stretched her skin to cover the hole. 

"The baby probably will have to have other operations in the future," said Fraser. "The sternum is about half formed, but these are things we can deal with."

Now 5 weeks old, Audrina is doing well. She still has a hole in her heart, but doctors said it may heal on its own. 

"They have no idea how thankful I am," said Ashley. "If it wasn't for them, as well as the grace of God, she wouldn't be here."