Doctors "Freeze" Baby, Claire Ives, Edward Ives: Never Before Attempted Procedure to Slow Accelerated Heart Rate in Infant with SVT

Claire Ives was forced to deliver her son, Edward, five weeks early due to the infants heart rate clocking in at about 300 beats per minute (almost double the normal rate of 160 BPM), leading doctors to try a never-before-practiced procedure of "freezing" the baby. Technically, the doctors cooled Edward's body temperature to a low enough degree to lower his heart rate without damaging his vital organs.

When Claire Ives, a London nurse, was 7 months pregnant, she used a handheld device to listen to her third child's heartbeat. She was dumbfounded at the rate at which her son's heart was beating and contacted her doctors. Learning of the nearly doubled heart rate, doctors brought Claire in for an emergency cesarean delivery at the University College London Hospital.

Edward's condition is called supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which gave him a 5% chance of survival at birth. SVT is caused by improper electrical impulses in the heart, leading to a rapid heartbeat, which can lead to heart failure or negative effects on internal organs. A heart beating too fast cannot properly fill up therefore becoming unable to distribute blood to vital organs evenly. Ives was convinced her newborn was going to die.

The delivery essentially showed an improvement in the heart rate but that only lasted a few hours. Doctors tried to reset his heart with many medications and even by shocking it, but to no avail. They were left with another option that had never been practiced in the treatment of SVT: Lowering Edward's body temperature.

For the next several hours, doctors lowered Edward's body temperature to around 91 degrees using a cold gel blanket. This process both slowed the electrical circuit in his heart and protected his vital organs. But as Edward warmed up, his heart started to race again leading to the team of doctors repeating the process again.

Claire was sent out of the room for this second attempt, and the doctors gave Edward medication on top of the use of the cool gel blanket. They then began to warm Edward again, only this time going at a much slower rate. His body temperature was raised a half-degree every 12 hours. The slow and stressful procedure was a success and Claire finally got to hold her son 10 days after giving birth. Edward was released from the hospital a month later and is most likely not going to need any further hospitalizations for SVT. His heart rate will continue to be closely monitored though. An elated Claire had this to say about the conclusion to her tense story:

"It was really strange highs and lows because he was doing extremely poorly. But, oh, thank God! It worked. It's made me appreciate all the small things about my children. It's the best thing ever to bring him home."