Doctors at Shanghai Children's Medical Center said Tuesday that they have successfully fixed two holes in a 3-month-old boy's heart using an advanced technique that has never been performed on someone that young in China.

The boy, Xu Haofeng, is expected to be discharged from hospital today.

The native of Jiangsu Province was diagnosed with muscular ventricular septal defects, meaning there were two holes in the muscular wall that separates the right and left ventricles of the heart.

Doctors said Xu's case is a very rare inborn heart ailment and traditional surgery could damage the heart and cause future problems for someone so young.

"Previously, doctors just opened the heart and made it stop beating for about 40 minutes to repair the holes," said hospital President Liu Jinfen, who led the surgery last Wednesday.

Doctors pinpointed the position of the defects using an ultrasound machine and then punctured a hole in the heart. They then inserted a pipe into the hole with materials to repair the holes.

"This is the first time in China that we used it on a 3-month-old child," Liu said.

"If we waited until he is 2 years old, he would miss the best opportunity to treat the problem and may have died," Liu added.

"I am happy that I can bring a healthy son back home. He is so lovely," said Zhang Ping, the boy's 25-year-old mother.

(Shanghai Daily March 16, 2005)