A team of around 50 staff got together from around 8am with specialised equipment before a theatre briefing at 8.30am.

At 9:50am Vanellope Hope was born and was immediately wrapped in a sterile plastic bag, and taken into an adjoining anaesthetic room.

The first operation involved special lines which were inserted into the blood vessels in her umbilical cord to give fluids and medications to support her heart, and to monitor her blood pressure accurately.

Consultant neonatologist Jonathan Cusack said: “At around 50 minutes of age, it was felt that Vanellope was stable enough to be transferred back to the main theatre where she had been born to the waiting anaesthetists, congenital heart disease and paediatric surgical teams who began the task of putting her entire heart back inside her chest.”

Vanellope was transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit where she will stay for several weeks, while she recovers.

After seven days, medics decided they could conduct the second operation, which was to open her chest a bit more so they could create more space for the heart to fit back in.

Over a period of around two weeks, her heart naturally made its way back into the chest due to gravity.

This allowed staff to carry out the final operation which involved taking skin from under her arms and moving it round to join in the middle of her body.

Surgeons had created a mesh which protected the heart as she did not have ribs or a sternum.

As her organs fight for space inside her chest, Vanellope is still attached to a ventilation machine.

East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre lead surgeon Branko Mimic said: “Cases such as Vanellope’s, where everything else appears essentially normal, are even rarer, and whilst therefore it would seem more hopeful she will do well, it is therefore almost impossible to be confident of this.”