Thousands flock in Bangladesh to see dead 15.2 kg baby

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Parents of a 15.2 kilogramme (33.5 pounds) baby born in southern Bangladesh were forced to hide their newborn this week after thousands of villagers flocked to see the infant, doctors said Friday.
Doctor Pabitra Kumar Kunda, who delivered the baby by Caesarean section on Tuesday, said the child died 10 minutes after birth.

"The baby had little chance of survival. Its sex organs had not developed properly. It was the length of a normal baby but its chest, belly and other important limbs were very big," he said.

"We knew the baby could be big because the mother's belly was very swollen. We thought it could be twins or triplets, which is common in Bangladesh."

Kunda said thousands came to see the dead child at the hospital in Tungipara, 100 kilometres (89 miles) southwest of the capital Dhaka, forcing medical staff to hide the corpse on hospital grounds.

"News got out about the giant baby and thousands of people came to see it. We didn't know what to do so we hid the baby until they stopped coming," Kunda said, adding he had never come across such a big birth weight in his career.

According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby born weighed 10.8 kilogrammes (23 pounds 12 ounces) in the United States in 1879. That baby died 11 hours after birth.

The heaviest surviving baby weighed 10.2 kilogrammes (22 pounds, 8 ounces) in Italy in 1955.

Last month, police were forced to provide protection in the southwestern Bangladeshi town of Keshobpur after a baby boy was born with two heads, attracting crowds of up to 150,000 people.

The baby, named Kiron, died two days after he was born because his parents could not afford to take him to a hospital where better medical help was available.