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Sion doctors operate on month-old baby born with tumour half her weight

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In the last week of December, a team of surgeons at Sion hospital operated on a 27-day-old infant born with a tumour weighing half her weight. As per the doctors, the tumour in the girl's stomach was detected when her mother was in the seventh month of her pregnancy.

Dr Paras Kothari, head of the paediatric surgery department, said, "Luckily, the child's mother was registered with Sion hospital for delivery. Once she delivered her in December, we transferred the baby under our care from the gynaecology department."

The tumour is termed Teratoma (from Greek; Terato meaning 'a monster' and 'onkoma' meaning 'swelling or mass'). Necessary medical tests were conducted before she was taken for surgery.

Elaborating on the result of the tests, Dr Kothari informed: "Teratomas in newborns are generally benign and don't spread. They can, however, be malignant, depending on the maturity and other types of cells that may be involved. We did multiple biopsy tests to ensure that the tumour was not cancerous. Thankfully, the report was negative."

The tumour encompassed major blood vessels and organs, making it a big challenge for the doctors. "A major blood vessel was passing through the tumour. It was a matured full-grown tumour and weighed one and half kg. It was pushing the kidneys down. The baby's weight was around 3 kg," Dr Kothari added.

A team of doctors took four hours to puncture, detach and remove the tumour from the child's body. "Her mother was very cooperative and maintained patience as we went ahead with the surgery," said Dr Kothari.

Now, after a month of staying in hospital, the baby and the mother were discharged last week. "In this case, the weight of the tumour was half the weight of the baby. Since it was linked to a major blood vessel, the case is a distinct one and so, we will be sending this case to the paediatric medical journal. We are happy that the baby is faring well and gaining weight," the doctor added.

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