Baby with a 'second head' is buried alive by his father in India... only to be rescued and given a new chance of life

A 'two-headed' baby who was rescued as his father was having him buried alive will get a fresh start thanks to life-changing surgery.

Surgeons said the child, who has not been named, was born in Kashmir, India, with a second head growing out of his first.

Because of the abnormality, which was filled with dysfunctional brain matter, the father rejected the newborn and tried to have him buried.

But a grave digger in the town of Nowhatta raised the alarm after noticing movement and hearing a feeble cry as he lowered the baby into the ground.

Now the enormous 4.6lbs growth has been removed by neurosurgeons at the nearby Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, giving the child a new lease on life. Dr Abdul Rashid Bhat, who operated on the baby, said: 'The 40-day-old was born with a head-on-head anomaly and was unacceptable to the family who attempted to bury him alive.

'The police service of Kashmir saved him and admitted him to the hospital. His condition was critically bad, so he was initially admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.'

Dr Bhat said the 'second head' was an example of giant occipital encephalocele. 

Encephalocele occurs in one in 5,000 births, when part of the skull has not formed properly and a portion of brain tissue forms in a sac-like protrusion outside it.

In this case, Dr Bhat said, the growth was three times the size of the normal head. 

'The operation was aimed at separating the abnormal dysfunctional brain from the normal brain along with skin,' he said.

'It took three hours. The operation was very successful since the normal shape of the head was resumed and the baby started thriving well postoperatively. 

'He was discharged from the hospital within only a week of the operation and was seen once by the outpatient department.

'The child is expected to live normally if he does not manifest signs of any other anomaly in any other organ in future.'

According to local media, the father was arrested but later bailed by his brother.

The uncle has reportedly now adopted the child.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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