The child before the surgery. Picture by Khelen Thokchom

Imphal, April 27: Nobody gave the 12-day-old boy, weighing 3 kg and with a 1.2-kg tumour on his neck, any chance of survival. The infant’s grandfather wanted doctors to put him out of his misery, but Dr Palin Khundongbam and his team had other ideas.

In just 15 minutes, the Imphal-based surgeon severed the benign cyst from the boy’s neck and, without knowing it, became the only doctor in the world to successfully remove such a large neck tumour. That was 13 months ago.

Today, Dr Khundongbam is the proud recipient of a Guinness citation for being the holder of a new world record.

“I am pleased to inform you that you have been successful in setting a new Guinness world record under the category of largest next tumour,” Laura Hughes of Guinness’ records research services wrote to the surgeon a few days ago.

“The details of this record have been entered into our records as: ‘A benign cyst weighing 1.2 kg (2lb, 9 oz) was removed successfully from a baby boy (India, born on March 5) by a team led by Dr Palin Khundongbam at Shija Hospital and Research Institute, Imphal, Manipur, India, on March 17, 2003. The tumour represented 40 per cent of the child’s total bodyweight of 3 kg (6lb, 8.5 oz)’,” the letter of acknowledgement said.

The baby was born at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, through ceasearean section. Doctors at the hospital said the infant would not survive and refused to conduct any surgery. After seven days, the infant’s father admitted him to Shija Hospital and Research Institute at the advice of a friend.

Dr Khundongbam said he conducted surgery with an ultrasonic harmonic scalpel, which involves minimal loss of blood. “The chance of the child surviving the operation was only 10 per cent. We informed the parents of the boy about the risk, but they agreed to go ahead with it,” he recalled.

Before the operation, the child could not move its head or be breastfed. Within two days of surgery, both became possible.

The citation does not guarantee Dr Khundongbam an entry into the annual Guinness Book of World Records, but the institution does consider all new records for inclusion in future publications and programmes.