Fifty-year-old Sharif Ali, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district, about 125 kilometre from here, had been experiencing stomach pain for the past several months.
A father of three, Ali was told by the doctors that he was suffering from inguinal hernia (when tissue, such as part of the intestine protrudes through a weak spot in the abdominal muscles), and needed to be operated upon.
For the doctors it was going to be a routine surgery until Ali was ushered into the OT (operation theater) on Saturday. None in the OT had apprehended what they were about to see.
Instead of hernia, the surgeon Dr Vineet Kumar Verma found a uterus. Ali also had a fallopian tube.
''It was a surprise... There was no symptom... All the symptoms pointed toward hernia... There was a lump on the left side, which disappeared on being pushed,'' Verma said.
''We saw the uterus, when the abdomen was opened on the operation table,'' he told DH from Hardoi.
Verma said that it was a rare disorder and is medically referred as 'Persistent Müllerian Duct Syndrome'.
He said that so far around 150 such cases had been reported throughout the world.
''The first such case was reported in 1939,'' he added.
''Ali is absolutely fine,'' he added.
For Ali's family this came as a shock and surprise. ''We never imagined that he was carrying a uterus,'' his wife said.
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