A 2-foot-long ovarian tumour has been removed from a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Thailand.

The youngster Nong Onsanit was rushed to the hospital after complaining about severe stomach aches in Suphan Buri province on March 23.

Doctors performed a CT scan on her abdominal area and found that one of her ovaries had expanded to around 12 times its normal size.

After the shocking discovery, medics performed an emergency operation on the girl and extracted the giant mass with 18 litres of water in it. The procedure took around one hour and pathology tests found the growth was benign.

Nong’s mother Somboon Onsanit said they visited a local health clinic five months ago when her menstruation suddenly stopped and the stomach aches had started.

She said: "I took my daughter to doctors before this and they thought she had gastritis because she likes to eat a lot. My daughter is bigger than other children her age, so I agreed with the doctors."

The medics who first checked on the girl only gave her pills to regulate stomach acid as they thought she was only suffering from an inflamed gut due to unhealthy eating habits.

However, the girl continued having intense spikes of pain in her abdominal area until five months later when the spasms became unbearable.

Her stomach had also bloated immensely since the painful attacks started so her worried mother rushed her to the hospital for a check-up.

Doctor Nath Kaitaphiwasu of Chaophraya Yommarat Hospital who handled the girl’s case said the kind of tumour found normally grows in women aged at least 30-years-old so diagnosing it in a teen was rare.

He said: "I could not believe what I saw. She was so lucky that it was a benign one. It was rare to find such tumour inside a teenager as they normally grow on older women aged at least 30-years-old. We then quickly began an operation to save her."

The doctor added that if the tumour was left untreated for a few more months, the girl may have needed radiation treatment to reduce the size of the tumour before surgery.

He said: "I encourage women to see a doctor as early as possible so their reproductive health could be checked regularly. Most of these diseases are curable as long as they are detected early on."

A 2ft long ovarian tumour has been removed from a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Thailand.

The youngster Nong Onsanit was rushed to the hospital after complaining about severe stomach aches in Suphan Buri province on March 23.

Doctors performed a CT scan on her abdominal area and found that one of her ovaries had expanded to around 12 times its normal size.

After the shocking discovery, medics performed an emergency operation on the girl and extracted the giant mass with 18 litres of water in it. The procedure took around one hour and pathology tests found the growth was benign.

Nong’s mother Somboon Onsanit said they visited a local health clinic five months ago when her menstruation suddenly stopped and the stomach aches had started.

She said: ‘I took my daughter to doctors before this and they thought she had gastritis because she likes to eat a lot. My daughter is bigger than other children her age, so I agreed with the doctors.’

The medics who first checked on the girl only gave her pills to regulate stomach acid as they thought she was only suffering from an inflamed gut due to unhealthy eating habits.

However, the girl continued having intense spikes of pain on her abdominal area until five months later when the spasms became unbearable.

Her stomach had also bloated immensely since the painful attacks started so her worried mother rushed her to the hospital for a check up.

Doctor Nath Kaitaphiwasu of Chaophraya Yommarat Hospital who handled the girl’s case said the kind of tumour found normally grows in women aged at least 30-years-old so diagnosing it in a teen was rare.

He said: ‘I could not believe what I saw. She was so lucky that it was a benign one. It was rare to find such tumour inside a teenager as they normally grow on older women aged at least 30-years-old. We then quickly began an operation to save her.’

The doctor added that if the tumour was left untreated for a few more months, the girl may have needed radiation treatment to reduce the size of the tumour before surgery.

He said: ‘I encourage women to see a doctor as early as possible so their reproductive health could be checked regularly. Most of these diseases are curable as long as they are detected early on.’

An ovarian tumour is an abnormal mass of tissue that grows inside a woman’s ovary which can either be benign or cancerous. Various factors could affect the growth of ovarian tumours such as genetics or an unhealthy diet.