New Delhi, Apr 27 (IANS): It was a life-saving miracle for 22-year-old Kashmiri youth Majid Khan, who was operated upon at a hospital here for a tumor the size of a cricket ball, doctors said Friday. The condition was rare as the tumor burst into a blood vessel making Khan's condition potentially fatal.

"Majid had severe allergic attacks and difficulty in breathing. After series of investigations, we found that a large hydrated tumor in the chest had burst into the aorta - a blood vessel in the body," said Deep Goel, director of the department of minimal access, bariatric and surgical gastroenterology at west Delhi's BLK Hospital.

The aorta is the large artery that carries all the blood from the heart to various organs of the body. The tumor was stuck between the heart and spine. The surgery cost Khan's family around Rs.2 lakh.

"This was a rare condition because aorta is a very crucial blood vessel and we were expecting huge amount of bleeding during the surgery," Goel told IANS.

Khan, 22, from a village near Srinagar, had visited various hospitals where he faced problems in diagnosis. Around two months back, the team of doctors from bariartric and cardiac department of BLK Hopsital planned the surgery on Khan.

"The tumor of the size of a cricket ball has been removed. Such an operation involves controlling flow of blood in the aorta and is considered risky as vital organs of the body like the spinal cord and kidney can be affected," said J.C. Vij, a cardiac surgeon from the hospital.

"When the aorta was clamped, special techniques and expertise were employed to successfully remove this tumor and repair the hole in the aorta," added Vij.