MUMBAI – Mrityunjay Das, a seven-month-old child in India, has been dubbed the ‘ghost baby’ and called ‘giant head’ after his head swelled to 96cm due to a condition called hydrocephalus that resulted in excess fluid build up on the brain.
However, the circumference of the head was reduced to 70cm after an operation to drain 3.7 litres of fluid from his skull.
The baby belongs to Ranpur State, India, and is now set to have cranioplasty to reshape his deformed skull.
Mrityunjay’s parents’ Kamalesh Das and Kavita say their family have been shunned in their local community due to their son’s deformity.
The 35-years-old Kamalesh who works in Kolkata, said: ‘People would call our baby a ‘ghost’ because of his unusual appearance.
He hoped that after the cranoplasty, the boy would look like a normal human being thus making it easir for them to live in the commun ity with joy and pride.
On the other hand, Dr Dilip Parida, superintendent of the AIIMS hospital at Bhuwaneshwar, said: ‘The child was admitted on November 20 with the head containing almost 5.5 liters of fluid.
‘We have removed 3.7 liters of fluid so far by external ventricular drainage.
Mrityunjay is the second case of such type. Earlier, Roona Begum, from Tripura in India, head swelled to 94cm.
