A monster tumour strangling a 13-week foetus inside its mother’s womb has been surgically removed in a city hospital to save the pregnancy.

For 30-year-old Nandita Reang, the dream of motherhood fast turned into a nightmare when doctors found a large fibroid — albeit a benign one — jostling for space with the foetus in her womb.

After doctors in her native town, Agartala, threw in the towel, Nandita and husband Anupam decided to consult specialists in Calcutta in a last-ditch attempt to save the baby.

“The tumour in the anterior wall of the uterus had by then grown larger (17x15x16cm) and was occupying the entire pelvis. There was no room left for the baby to grow,” said T. Biju Singh, the gynaecological surgeon who treated her.

Led by Singh, a team of doctors performed a successful, four-hour myomectomy (surgical removal of fibroids) at the Bhagirathi Neotia Woman and Child Care Centre on September 19.

“Such a huge tumour (it weighed 3.2kg) coinciding with pregnancy is very rare. To remove the tumour and save the pregnancy is rarer still,” Singh said.

The main challenge for the surgeons was to prevent excessive bleeding and also make sure that the uterine cavity wasn’t affected. “Besides pressure on the kidneys, there was indentation in the endometrial cavity and hardly any space for the foetus to develop,” said gynaecologist Sudhir Adhikari, part of the team that conducted the procedure.

Had the tumour remained embedded in the anterior wall, it would have retarded the foetus’s growth and triggered multiple complications, including premature termination of pregnancy and risk to the mother’s life.

“We had almost given up hope. This is my wife’s first pregnancy; so losing the baby would have been crushing,” said Anupam, a lecturer at NIT, Agartala.

Nandita is said to be “90 per cent out of danger” and can hope to have a successful pregnancy.

With more and more women postponing pregnancy for their careers, doctors warn of a higher incidence of uterine tumours in future. Nandita’s journey from despair to hope, thanks to medical expertise, is the silver lining in the cloud.