Doctors saved the life of a baby boy suffering from a potentially fatal heart condition using a new procedure which radically cools the body.

The boy was given a five per cent chance of survival before the treatment as he was born with a racing heart of 300 beats per minute.  He was treated at University College Hospital London for supraventricular tachycardia and is now a thriving baby back home with his parents.  The treatment involves sedating the baby so they don’t move too much and cooling the body from 98.6F to 91.9F.  The length of the treatment depends on the condition of the baby but in this case it took four days.