Boy born with heart outside chest dies at 13

HOBART, Ind. — A former Indiana boy who overcame the odds to survive a rare congenital defect in which he was born with his heart outside his chest has died at age 13.

When Tyler Jacob Todd was born in August 2000, doctors gave him less than a 1 percent chance of survival. But he survived a four-hour procedure in which surgeons placed his heart back inside his chest.

The Times of Munster reports (http://bit.ly/19qVT0Z) Tyler died unexpectedly Thursday at his family’s home in Memphis, Tenn., where his family had moved two years ago from Hobart, Ind.

His great-aunt, Maryanna Mooney, says despite a lifetime of surgeries Tyler was able to enjoy the joys of being a normal boy during the past four years and he’d thrived on NASCAR racing.