Doctors at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital performed a rare feat by removing a tumour from an infant’s heart. The growth was actually greater in size than the heart itself.

Dr Rajesh Sharma, senior paediatric cardiac surgeon at Apollo, said it took them almost two hours to take out the tumour. The growth was within the pericardium, a membrane surrounding the heart. The doctors had to operate on the two-day old baby with great caution to ensure there was no damage to the surrounding tissues or organs. The malady was noticed in the 20th week of the mother’s pregnancy, but doctors decided to wait till birth to perform the procedure.
While the baby measured a healthy 3.2 kilograms at birth, it was discovered that a giant intra-pericardial tumour was compressing the lung, and pushing the heart to one side, making breathing difficult for the new-born. Doctors performed the procedure by placing the child on a heart-lung machine, and had to be watchful of the infant’s blood-pressure.