These images show a day-old baby girl who was born with her internal organs trapped in a sac outside her body.
The medical condition known as omphalocele or exomphalos meant her liver and part of her intestines were growing in a 4-inch translucent pouch outside her belly button.
The infant was delivered by 36-year-old mum Ms Zhang in a natural birth on 23th December in a local hospital in the city of Qidong in East China’s Jiangsu Province.
Her daughter was transferred to the larger Nantong Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital later the same night.
Doctors examining the newborn’s abnormality then scheduled an emergency operation for the following day, saying that the child risked necrosis or an infection of her exposed organs, the hospital reported.
Zhang Youbo, the facility’s head of paediatric surgery, said: “It was mainly her liver that was exposed.
“She was also missing a section of her abdominal wall measuring about 8 centimetres (3.15 inches) in diameter.
“The exposed sac itself was about 10 centimetres (4 inches) across.
“Because she developed with her organs outside her body, her abdominal capacity was very small.
“Simply putting her organs back into her abdominal would have caused her diaphragm to be pushed upwards, pressing against her heart and lungs.
“That would’ve had a harmful effect on her respiratory system.”
According to a hospital report, surgeons stretched the skin on her abdomen, relocated her organs backs into her tummy, and sewed her back up.
The operation took just under two hours, and the girl was discharged following two weeks of observations.
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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