On Tuesday, in a rare and complex surgery which was performed at New Civil Hospital (NCH), Gujarat, neurosurgeons removed a tumour of the size of a head attached to a 16-day-old girl’s head.

The girl’s parents brought her to the city from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh. After surgery, her condition was declared stable. The parents were so much tensed because of this medical condition that they have not yet named the child.

The baby was born with a huge tumour attached to her head. Santoshi kumari and Rahul Mishra, parents of the baby, and laborer by profession did not lose hope and searched for possibilities to get their daughter cured. They approached doctors at government hospital in different places in UP including Lucknow, but the doctors there were not able to perform the difficult surgery. Finally, Rahul communicated with his brother Amrika prasad in Surat and sought his help.

The couple came in the city earlier this month and visited NCH for treatment. A team of doctors — Dr Mukesh Pancholi, head of surgery department, and Dr Jigar Shah, a visiting neurosurgeon at NCH —examined the case. Dr Shah said that it was a challenging surgery as per the MRI reports. But they decided to give it a try even though the chances of survival were very low. The tumor was of 18 cm diameter and weighed 3.5 kg.

Rahul, who does labor job in New Delhi, said that it is a new life for his daughter and the family. They are very thankful to the doctors and the hospital staff. They were told at a private hospital that the surgery would cost Rs 4 lakh but in NCH they got it done with no cost.

Dr Ganesh Govekar, in-charge superintendent of the NCH, said that the surgery was done successfully and the girl is stable and under observation in NICU. The surgery was done by a visiting neurosurgeon who provides his services under Rogi Kalyan Samiti.